US paper currency will bear President Donald Trump‘s signature starting this summer, the first time a sitting president has signed American money, the Treasury Department said on Thursday.
The redesigned notes, planned to mark the 250th anniversary of American independence, will also for the first time in 165 years drop the signature of the US treasurer, who reports to the Treasury Secretary and oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the US Mint and other Treasury functions.
It’s the latest instance of Trump putting his name and likeness on American cultural institutions, following his renaming of the US Institute of Peace, the Kennedy Center performing arts venue and a new class of battleships, among other changes.
The plans come in tandem with an ongoing effort to get Trump’s face on a coin, which has also drawn criticism since federal law prohibits the depiction of a living president on US currency.
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The first $100 bills with Trump’s signature and that of US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will be printed in June, followed by other bills in subsequent months. The new bills may take several weeks to circulate through banks.
The Treasury is still producing notes bearing the signatures of former President Joe Biden‘s Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, and former Treasurer Lynn Malerba.
Malerba will be the last of an unbroken line of treasurers whose signatures have appeared on US federal currency since 1861, when the US government first issued it.
Bessent said in a statement that the move was appropriate for the US 250th anniversary, given strong US economic growth and financial stability during Trump’s second term.
“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,” Bessent said.
A statute governing the printing of Federal Reserve notes gives the Treasury broad discretion to change designs to guard against counterfeiting. The law requires keeping certain elements, including the words “In God We Trust,” and only allows portraits of deceased individuals.
The overall designs of bills will not change, except for Trump’s signature replacing the Treasurer’s, Treasury officials said. A mock-up of the $100 bill with Trump’s signature was not immediately available.
Malerba, the former treasurer, declined comment on the Trump administration’s move.
Her predecessor, Jovita Carranza, who served as treasurer in Trump’s first term, called the change “a powerful symbol of American resilience, the enduring strength of free enterprise and the promise of continued greatness.”
The current treasurer, Brandon Beach, whose name has not appeared on the currency, also issued a supportive statement, saying Trump was the architect of a “golden age economic revival.”
Democrats criticised the move in part because the announcement comes as Americans face rising costs at the grocery store and the gas pump. The war in Iran , which the US and Israel began on February 28, has caused oil and gas prices to soar, deepening people’s affordability concerns.
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters and AP)
