Treasury Secretary Brandon Beach shares on Oct. 3, 2025, images of a proposed commemorative coin that the Trump administration wants as part of its effort to celebrate the 250th anniversary of America's founding.
Supporters of then-President Donald Trump attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

I, for one, am beyond excited the U.S. Treasury is going to ignore stupid things like “laws” and “precedent” and “humility” and mint a $1 coin bearing the image of President Donald Trump.

The planned coin will be commemorative, presumably commemorating how everything is perfect now that Trump is president again! Perfect, as long as you disregard the fact that the government is shut down, National Guard troops are being dispatched to cities Trump doesn’t like, U.S. citizens are routinely being rounded up by masked and warrantless immigration agents, inflation and food prices are rising, electricity prices are rising, the job market is weak, the president’s poll numbers are tanking, Republicans are doing everything to avoid releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files, and the 79-year-old Trump himself doesn’t seem entirely tethered to reality.

What better time to honor a profoundly divisive president whose singular accomplishment is getting people to dole out $55 for an ugly red hat?

Who better to put on a commemorative US coin than Trump? Seriously?

The coin was trumpeted by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in an Oct. 6 Treasury Department social media post that explained the coin would come out in 2026 as part of the celebration of America’s 250th birthday: “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.”

Is there no profile more emblematic? Couldn’t they have found a president or American patriot who didn’t have “convicted felon” and “refused to accept the results of a free and fair election” and “fomented an attack on the U.S. Capitol” on his résumé? Or maybe just “probably not in the Epstein files”?

The proposed Trump coins look like someone minted a bad idea

Draft images of the $1 coin show Trump’s profile on the front, looking like a dime-store Alfred Hitchcock wearing a bad wig. On the back is a sketch of Trump with a raised fist in front of an American flag under the unifying words “FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT.”

I wish I was making this up. In fact, I wish I could say everything we’re experiencing right now is just a ridiculous dream brought on by that extra bratwurst we shouldn’t have eaten at dinner.

But no. This is real life.

Trump coins will be illegal, indecent, or both

While they say the Trump coin will be worth $1, if it stays true to the man it depicts, it will cost $50 and be worth 1 cent.

Also, in keeping with Trump’s brand, it will likely require some law-breaking to get it done.

Federal law covering “Redesign and Issuance of Circulating $1 Coins Honoring Each of the Presidents of the United States” says: “No coin issued under this subsection may bear the image of a living former or current President.”

Maybe just give soft-ego Trump his stupid coin and laugh at him

A 2016 article from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco states: “To avoid the appearance of a monarchy, it was long-standing tradition to only feature portraits of deceased individuals on currency and coin. That tradition became law with an 1866 Act of Congress.”

But that seems to presume America would have a president who didn’t want to be a monarch. Trump is totally different, so let’s definitely give him a coin.

Nobody fluffs Trump quite like his Cabinet members and Republican cronies

Bessent claimed on social media that he can mint a fancy Trump commemorative coin thanks to the Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act of 2020, which says you can issue coinage “with designs emblematic of the United States semiquincentennial.”

First, I will pay someone 5,000 Trump coins to ask the president to define the word “semiquincentennial.” Second, I’m not seeing how we get from that 2020 law to the hilarious assertion that Trump is emblematic of the nation’s 250th birthday, unless it’s done in more of a “Well, we had a good run until this schmoe came along!” kind of way.

Trump could focus on grocery prices, but I guess coins are more important

I guess what matters most here is the Trump administration has its eye on the ball and is laser-focused on fluffing the president’s ego rather than … you know … governing and helping people afford to eat and whatnot.

Once those coins are issued next year, I’m going to start using them to pay for my groceries. Which by then will probably cost about $500 Trump coins per week.

I’m gonna need a bigger coin purse.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: A $1 coin with Trump's face on it? I wouldn't pay a penny for it. | Opinion

Reporting by Rex Huppke, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect