Over the course of the year, several of Donald Trump’s most sycophantic congressional allies have unveiled a ridiculous series of bills intended to glorify the incumbent president. There are legislative proposals ranging from making Trump’s birthday a federal holiday to carving his face into Mount Rushmore, to renaming Dulles International Airport after Trump to renaming the Kennedy Center after him.
Some of the bills, however, are specifically focused on currency. One GOP measure, for example, would put Trump’s face on $100 bills. Another would create a $250 bill that would also feature the president’s face.
The proposals reflect the degree to which too much of the Republican Party has become a personality cult, but they’re also tough to take seriously: Most legal observers agree that it’s not permissible to depict any living person on U.S. currency.
It’s against this backdrop that NBC News reported:
The Treasury on Friday shared draft images of a $1 commemorative coin, featuring President Donald Trump’s visage, that the United States Mint is preparing in honor of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Trump’s instantly recognizable profile is featured on the ‘heads’ side of the coin. On the ‘tails’ side, the coin will have an image of Trump with his first raised, standing in front of an American flag.
On the “tails” side, above the image of Trump pumping his fist, the words “Fight, Fight, Fight” would appear.
I should probably emphasize that this is not a joke. The report is not satire. This is not intended to make the administration look foolish for the sake of comedy.
Rather, there’s an actual plan to make a legal tender $1 coin, which could be used like standard currency starting next year and which venerates the incumbent president. Putting aside questions of propriety, how would this be legal? The answer is, it might not be. The New York Times reported: The Treasury is authorized to mint the coins for a year, according to the Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act of 2020. The coins must have ‘designs emblematic of the U.S. semiquincentennial,’ the legislation says. It is not clear that Mr. Trump’s image can be featured on a coin. An 1866 law enshrined a tradition that only deceased people could appear on U.S. currency to avoid the appearance that America was a monarchy. Let’s also not overlook the fact that the Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act of 2020 also states, “No head and shoulders portrait or bust of any person, living or dead, and no portrait of a living person may be included in the design on the reverse of any coin under subsections (x), (y), and (z).” U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach, who supervises the U.S. Mint, said via social media that the administration would share “more soon, once the obstructionist shutdown of the United States government is over.” I can hardly wait.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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