Commission handpicked by Trump is weighing whether to put his picture on a commemorative gold coin
-1-copy.jpeg?width=1200&auto=webp&trim=0%2C0%2C0%2C0&ssl=1 "Commission handpicked by Trump is weighing whether to put his picture on a commemorative gold coin")
A commission handpicked by the president could soon approve a design for a commemorative $1 gold coin that features a portrait of Donald Trump.
Despite a longstanding tradition of omitting sitting presidents from commemorative coin designs, a proposal before the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts suggests using a portrait of the president standing over his resolute desk with his knuckles pressed firmly down while staring into the camera.
The coin design is being considered as part of the Semiquincentennial Coin Program, in which the U.S. Treasury will mint a series of commemorative coins to honor the United States’ 250th anniversary.
The U.S. Mint is considering three designs, each featuring a different up-close portrait of Trump, for the 2026 commemorative $1 coin.
Several Democratic senators have pushed to pass legislation that would prohibit the government from minting coins featuring the likeness of a living or sitting president.
“President Trump’s self-celebrating maneuvers are authoritarian actions worthy of dictators like North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, not the United States of America,” Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley said in a statement.
“While monarchs put their faces on coins, America has never had and never will have a king,” Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto added. “Our legislation would codify this country’s long-standing tradition of not putting living Presidents on American coins. Congress must pass it without delay.”
The Treasury Department defended the decision to pitch the president on a coin in October, writing on X: “On this momentous anniversary, there is no profile more emblematic for the front of this coin than that of our serving President, Donald J. Trump.”
Should the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts approve the design, which seems likely since all the members are Trump appointees who voted to approve the president’s White House ballroom design last month, it’s unclear what the next step is.
Another committee, which is required to review designs, the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee, may choose not to consider the design. It has already declined to consider the three options the U.S. Mint proposed.
Typically, both panels must approve a design before it moves to the Secretary of the Treasury for final approval. Although Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is not required to take up a design approved by the committees.
A design featuring the sitting president was not part of the original commemorative coin design proposals, but the Treasury announced a last-minute plan to include a $1 coin that would feature the president. It’s unclear if the president or Treasury requested a coin featuring his likeness.
The White House declined to comment for this story.
The Independent has asked the U.S. Treasury for comment.
