A proposal for the new bill, featuring a glaring Trump, was first reported on Thursday by the Washington Post.
If carried out, it would be the first time the image of a living person – let alone a president – had appeared on US currency in a century and a half.
“Right now there is proposed legislation – front of the House, in front of the Senate – to change the first requirement so that a living person, Donald J Trump, could be on a $250 bill,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told a media briefing on Thursday.
“I don’t think that there’s anything untoward about having the President of the United States, the person who’s president of the United States, on the 250th anniversary bill,” Bessent said.
He said the Treasury Department has made advance preparations if legislation were passed, but “will stick to the law.”
A design mock-up obtained by the Washington Post showed the words “America 250 anniversary,” a nod to the United States declaring its independence on July 4, 1776.
According to the Post, two Trump appointees at the Treasury Department last year began urging staff at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to prepare prototypes.
Employees there, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Post that the plan raised concerns because it would violate a federal law banning the depiction of living presidents on US money.
A Treasury spokeswoman told AFP that the Bureau of Engraving and Printing is “conducting appropriate planning and due diligence” in response to the proposal.
She added that US Treasurer Brandon Beach had not asked staff to print the note before congressional action occurred.
Printing bureau director Patricia Solimene had pushed back, warning officials including Beach of legal and procedural obstacles, the employees told the Post.
Solimene was abruptly reassigned from her role, the paper reported.
Such worries have not stopped the Trump administration from pressing ahead with its effort to slap his likeness or name on cultural institutions and other items – sparking accusations of a cult of personality around the 79-year-old leader.
Earlier this year the US Commission of Fine Arts, whose members were appointed by Trump, unanimously approved the minting of a commemorative “Semiquincentennial Gold Coin” made of 24-carat gold.
In recent months both the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the US Institute of Peace have been rebranded to include Trump’s name.
His likeness also stares down from banners draping the Department of Justice and Department of Agriculture – and it will soon appear in some US passports, according to the State Department.
Legislation to allow Trump to appear on a $250 bill was introduced in Congress last year but has sat idle.
Reaction among Democrats was critical, with Senator Mark Warner, a member of the Senate’s banking committee, saying the unprecedented proposal amounted to the White House blatantly “stoking the president’s ego.” (AFP)
