US President Donald Trump and administration officials are pressing the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP), the office responsible for printing money, to design a USD 250 bill featuring Trump’s portrait, the Washington Post reported, citing four White House employees.
US Treasurer Brandon Beach and his senior adviser, Mike Brown, urged agency staff to prepare prototypes of the bill. However, federal law currently allows only for deceased people to appear on currency.
According to the Washington Post, no living person has appeared on US currency since 1866, after a treasurer appeared on a 5-cent note.
Beach provided staff with mock-up designs, according to the report, including one displaying Trump’s face in the center of the bill between his and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s signatures.
The artist in charge, British painter Iain Alexander, had previously spoken to Trump about the design, he told the Washington Post.
Alexander said Trump asked for changes to the original design, including adding the colors of the American flag and a logo commemorating the nation’s 250th anniversary.
The Trump administration attempted to pass legislation that would allow Trump to appear on the bill as a commemoration of the US’s 250th anniversary.
A Treasury Department spokesperson said that the printing office is conducting “appropriate planning and due diligence” in response to the proposed legislation, according to the report.
“Should this legislative mandate be signed into law, the BEP is moving proactively to produce a $250 commemorative note which will appropriately recognize the 250th Anniversary of our great nation,” the spokesperson reportedly said.
Obstacles delay printing of bill by several years
However, the director of the bureau, Patricia Solimene, and other staff explained that legal and procedural obstacles would delay the bill’s printing by several years, according to the four employees.
“Currency often takes six to eight years to produce a new bill, particularly one of such high value,” said one of the employees.
Solimene was abruptly reassigned from her role in the BEP. In a goodbye email, she wrote that her departure was not her choice, the outlet reported.
Staff at the BEP had consented to another request from the Trump administration: to print $100 bills with the president’s signature. The bills are currently being printed at the bureau’s Washington location, the first in American history to contain a presidential signature, according to the report.
US currency experts warn that producing a $250 bill with the president’s image would “run afoul of current laws,” the report noted.
According to experts, extensive coordination among the Federal Reserve, the Secret Service, and private sector partners is needed to design and print a new note, posing another challenge.
“These guys think you can just print something overnight and it’s going to work in an ATM. It’s just crazy,” said one of the employees. “It takes years and years and years to produce these notes so they are reliable for the public.”
