When it comes to the legal authority surrounding U.S. currencies, Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution doesn’t seem to offer any wiggle room. “The Congress shall have power … to coin money [and] regulate the value thereof.”
When Donald Trump swore an oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States,” perhaps he brushed past this detail. The Associated Press reported:
President Donald Trump says he has directed the Treasury Department to stop minting new pennies, citing the rising cost of producing the one-cent coin. … Trump had not discussed his desire to eliminate the penny during his campaign. But Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency raised the prospect in a post on X last month highlighting the penny’s cost.
As the Republican left New Orleans after watching the first half of the Super Bowl, he wrote to his social media platform, “For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents. This is so wasteful! I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies. Let’s rip the waste out of our great nations [sic] budget, even if it’s a penny at a time.”
There are two qualitatively different kinds of questions at issue here. The first has to do with the president’s position on the merits, while the second has to do with his legal authority.
When it comes to eliminating pennies, Trump’s position isn’t necessarily ridiculous. On the contrary, plenty of credible observers have made persuasive cases in recent years for getting rid of the 1-cent coins. Last year, The New York Times’ Caity Weaver presented a highly compelling indictment of the status quo, highlighting the folly of spending more than 3 cents to produce a penny that no one seems to want.
It’s among the reasons several other countries, including Canada, have already scrapped their smallest-denomination coins in recent years. What’s more, this is an idea with a bipartisan pedigree: Republican presidents such as Gerald Ford and Democratic presidents such as Barack Obama have both endorsed eliminating pennies.
But whether one supports or opposes sticking with the penny is separate from the question of governmental power. Penny critics have spent recent years pressing lawmakers on this for the most obvious of reasons: It’s up to Congress to make decisions about U.S. currencies. Even if Trump’s underlying position has merit — and it very well might — what arguably matters most in a situation like this isn’t about pennies, as much as it’s about the president unilaterally making a policy declaration outside of his authority. In other words, presidential power-grabs matter, even if they’re in pursuit of worthwhile policy goals. A New York magazine report added, “Like so many other things Trump has said or tried to do since retaking office, it’s not clear if he can legally [order the Treasury to stop making pennies]. It would probably require an act of Congress to fully discontinue the coin, since Congress dictates America’s currency specifications. But as with so many other things, Trump may just try to do it anyway.”
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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