President Donald Trump already has a meme coin. Now, some administration officials reportedly want to put him on actual money.
According to a report from the Washington Post, senior Treasury Department officials have pushed the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to explore creating a new $250 banknote featuring Trump’s likeness as part of the nation’s 250th birthday celebrations.
The proposed note would commemorate America’s semiquincentennial in 2026 and would feature Trump’s portrait prominently displayed on the front, along with the signatures of the president and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
There’s just one problem.
Federal law has long prohibited placing living individuals on U.S. currency.
The restriction dates back to the 1866 Thayer Amendment, which bars the likeness of any living person from appearing on official U.S. currency, bonds, securities, and other government-issued financial instruments.
That legal obstacle reportedly did not stop U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach and senior adviser Mike Brown from pressing the idea internally.
According to the report, Beach provided Bureau of Engraving and Printing officials with mock-up designs in August and September of last year showing Trump at the center of a proposed $250 bill.
The effort reportedly met resistance from within the bureau.
Patricia Solimene, director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, warned officials that the agency lacked legal authority to move forward and that numerous procedural hurdles remained unresolved.
“She had told them we’re not authorized to do this. We can’t progress any further, and all the stakeholders have not even met to discuss the next steps,” a source familiar with the discussions told the Post.
Even setting aside the legal issues, creating a new denomination would be a massive undertaking.
“Currency often takes six to eight years to produce a new bill, particularly one of such high value,” the source added.
The United States has not introduced a new circulating currency denomination in decades. While larger denominations such as the $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 bills once existed, they were discontinued in 1969 and are no longer printed.
Breaking news: Trump administration officials have pressed the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to design a $250 bill featuring the president’s portrait, in what would be the first appearance of a living person on U.S. currency in more than 150 years. https://t.co/S8sqdKSB7i
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 28, 2026
