The law currently states no living president can appear on currency, but the administration is preparing for the possibility that Congress will pass legislation authorizing the special Trump bill.
“It’s all in the hands of… Capitol Hill,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in the White House briefing room Thursday. “We prepared things in advance… but we will stick to the law.”
It does smack a bit of what dictatorships do and thus is not a good look. Even the 3rd Reich didn’t put Hitler’s portrait on banknotes and the 4th Reich hasn’t put Merz or von der Leyen’s portrait on EU banknotes (yet). Neither did the Soviet Union put Stalin’s portrait on its banknotes. However, Queen Elizabeth’s portrait has long been on British and Commonwealth banknotes. —Eds