Scott Bessent unveils Trump-themed currency for America's 250th anniversary

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday showed off the U.S. dollar bills featuring President Donald Trump's signature and $1 coins with the president's likeness. Giving Fox's Jesse Watters a tour of the Treasury's Office and the vault, Bessent announced that he had found a workaround to put the president's signature on all denominations, not just the $100 bills, as part of the celebrations of America's 250th Anniversary.

In the interview that aired Monday night, Bessent gave Watters a glimpse at the currency changes underway to celebrate America's 250th anniversary. Among those were the new paper currency touting Trump and Bessent's signatures. He showed the journalist the new $100 notes, which will be the first denomination to feature the updated signatures, adding that production of additional denominations is expected to follow. This is the first time in history that a living president's signature will be featured on currency. The notes are further expected to enter wider circulation across the country in the coming weeks through the Federal Reserve banking system.

The bills maintain the traditional design, the security features, and the portrait of Benjamin Franklin, with the only addition being the signature. Bessent further joked that Trump had to use a "mini Sharpie" to fit his signature in the box. He also explained that while the law prohibits the image of a living president from being printed on the bills, signatures are allowed. "As Treasury Secretary, I only have two mandates: The currency has to say, 'In God We Trust,' somewhere on it, and there cannot be an image of a living person," Bessent told Watters. "But we have the president’s signature, which again, I think it is appropriate for the 250th," he added.

Alongside the coin, Bessent also showcased the new $1 coins from the U.S. Mint featuring Trump's portrait. The commemorative coins tied to the 250th anniversary celebrations did not appear to be the 24-karat commemorative gold coin that the federal Commission of Fine Arts approved earlier this year. Instead, they appeared to be either silver dollars or legal-tender coins intended for circulation to commemorate the 250th Anniversary. The design also differed from the candidate designs that the White House had released in December last year.

Since the Presidential $1 Coin Act of 2005 states that a president must have been deceased for at least two years prior to being honored on a coin, Bessent clarified that the coins belonged to a different, commemorative category. He claimed such coins follow different rules, citing the precedent of similar coin designs. He added that while paper money is restricted to portraits of deceased figures, the Treasury has to follow no such rule to issue commemorative coins marking historic events. "During that 150th, there was a Calvin Coolidge coin. So, we can put living people's images on a coin," Bessent told Watters. Despite Bessent's assertions, the initiative has drawn widespread criticism, as it is seen as a part of the broader efforts of the Trump administration to stamp the president's likeness on American institutions.