Politics
President Donald Trump ‘Absolutely Loved’ Seeing His Face on a Fake $250 Bill, Wants to Make It Real
President Donald Trump wants his face on American currency — and his allies at the Treasury Department are pushing to make it happen.
Trump officials have been urging staff at the Treasury’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing to move forward with a new $250 bill featuring the president’s portrait, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday, May 28.
The mock-up, obtained by the Post, shows Trump’s face front and center alongside the words “250 AMERICA.”
But the plan hit a legal snag right out of the gate. The Thayer Amendment, passed in 1866, makes it a federal offense to feature any living person on U.S. currency, bonds, or financial notes, according to Time.
That hasn’t stopped Trump appointee Brandon Beach, the U.S. treasurer, from repeatedly pushing bureau staff to press ahead with the bill, according to the Post.
Kentucky Rep. Andy Barr posted a photo on X in January holding a giant mock-up of the proposed note alongside Beach.
British artist Iain Alexander, who designed the mock-up, told the Post that Trump, 79, “absolutely loved it.”
A Treasury spokesperson said the agency “is conducting appropriate planning and due diligence” on the bill, adding it is “moving proactively” should legislation pass.
But former Bureau of Engraving and Printing Director Larry R. Felix was blunt, telling the outlet that a $250 note is “not statutorily authorized” without an act of Congress.
The bureau’s most recent director, Patricia “Patty” Solimene, was reassigned in late April after telling Beach the project would take years and lacked proper authorization.
In a farewell note to colleagues, she said she “never sacrificed the values or character of myself or the organization.”
Beach’s senior advisor, Michael Brown, has since been named acting director.
Employees have repeatedly warned that producing a new bill can take six to eight years.
“These guys think you can just print something overnight,” one staffer told Post. “It takes years and years and years.”
The Hill reported in February 2025 that South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson was drafting legislation to create the new currency note, though it has yet to receive a hearing.
