Hillary Clinton mocked a Trump administration proposal to feature President Donald Trump’s likeness on a new $250 bill — claiming it will quickly lose value thanks to the current president’s policies.
The Washington Post reported Thursday that Treasury Department officials have requested prototype designs for the bill, despite internal pushback, potentially paving the way for a living person to appear on U.S. currency for the first time in over a century.
Clinton, who lost the 2016 election to Trump and has remained an outspoken critic in the decade since, took to social media to voice her opposition.
“By the end of Trump’s term, it’ll be just enough to buy one gallon of gas and a carton of eggs,” she wrote on X.
She seemed to be alluding to the rapid price increases that have taken place on Trump’s watch. U.S. inflation increased at its fastest clip in three years in April, largely driven by the rise in energy prices due to the ongoing Iran war, the Commerce Department announced on Thursday.
Other Democrats adopted a similar line of attack. California Rep. John Garamendi wrote on X: “Soon we’ll all be using Trump notes to pay for one gallon of gas.”
“It’s a disgraceful waste of taxpayer dollars and these acts are exactly the kind of out-of-touch vanity politics I will always fight against,” California Rep. Doris Matsui added.
The Post, citing current and former officials, reported that U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach and his adviser Mike Brown have “repeatedly” pressed employees at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to mock up designs for a $250 bill emblazoned with Trump’s face.
In August and September last year, Beach even provided bureau staff which prototype designs, including one with a portrait of Trump in the center, framed by the signatures of the president and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the Post reports.
Iain Alexander, a British painter, told the outlet that he created the prototype and has discussed it directly with the 79-year-old president, who endorsed additions such as adding the colors of the American flag.
The proposal has drawn sharp resistance within the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, including from its director, Patricia “Patty” Solimene, who said she was “abruptly reassigned” in April.
Some of the pushback relates to the lengthy process required to design and approve new currency. But critics also point to longstanding legal barriers: multiple laws prohibit living individuals from appearing on U.S. currency, a standard that has held for more than 150 years.
In February, Rep. Joe Wilson, a South Carolina Republican, attempted to circumvent those restrictions, introducing legislation directing Bessent to “print $250 Federal Reserve notes featuring a portrait of Donald Trump.”
Asked about the Post’s report at a Thursday press conference, Bessent confirmed preliminary planning is underway, but that it is contingent on congressional action.
“I have two mandates for U.S. currency, at present: no living person can be on U.S. currency, and the currency must say, ‘In God we trust,’” Bessent told reporters gathered in the White House.
“So, right now there is proposed legislation…to change the first requirement so that a living person, Donald J. Trump, could be on the $250 bill,” he added. “At Treasury, we prepare things in advance. So we have prepared in advance that if the legislation is passed, but we will stick to the law.”
Bessent later dismissed the Post’s article as “terribly written” and “terribly edited.” But when pressed on whether minting new currency bearing Trump’s image is appropriate amid cost-of-living struggles, he declined to answer directly.
