First we had the Donald Trump gold card – now he’s signing dollar bills
You might soon have to see Donald Trump every time the supermarket cashier hands you your change.
Trump will become the first sitting US president to have his John Hancock on dollar bills, the Treasury said yesterday.
His squiggle will start appearing on the $100 bill in June to mark America’s 250th anniversary, with others to follow.
Trump’s name will appear alongside that of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Bessent said: ‘There is no more powerful way to recognise the historic achievements of our great country and President Donald J Trump than US dollar bills bearing his name and it is only appropriate that this historic currency be issued at the semiquincentennial.’
The pair’s signatures on the greenback leave no space for the treasurer’s, whose name has been on the currency for more than a century.
Treasurer Brandon Beach said: ‘Printing his signature on the American currency is not only appropriate, but also well deserved.’
Yet, the Democratic Party governor of California, Gavin Newsom, criticised Trump for breaking tradition.
He said on X: ‘Now Americans will know exactly who to blame as they’re paying more for groceries, gas, rent, and healthcare.’
The signatures on the banknotes change when a new Treasury secretary takes the job, who has the power to change currency designs.
Trump’s unprecedented change, first reported by Reuters, is the latest in his efforts to imprint (literally) himself on US history.
He has pushed to have $1 coins minted depicting himself, fists planted on a desk with a glowering expression, that would circulate as currency.
Trump’s handpicked arts commission also voted earlier this month to commemorate a 24-karat gold coin bearing Trump’s image.
How money is minted and printed, however, is tightly controlled in the US.
An 1866 Thayer Amendment states: ‘Only the portrait of a deceased individual may appear on United States currency and securities.’
All new coins need to be reviewed by the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee, which has been trying to delay the striking of Trump coins.
The committee’s acting chairman, Donald Scarinci, said last month: ‘Only those nations ruled by kings or dictators display the image of their sitting ruler on the coins of the realm.’
Elsewhere, Trump has launched his own cryptocurrency, $RUMP, and introduced a speedy visa for the wealthy called a ‘Trump gold card’.
The programme website says a ‘Trump platinum card’ is coming soon.
Those willing to cough up a ‘$5 million contribution… ‘will have the ability to spend up to 270 days in the United States without being subject to US taxes on non-US income’.
Trump also etched his name on the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and is pushing to rename Dulles Airport after him.
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