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WASHINGTON (CN) — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday downplayed reports that his agency has prepared a $250 bill featuring President Donald Trump’s face, claiming the administration was merely preparing for future congressional action greenlighting the new banknote.
But the White House’s top finance official said there would be nothing “untoward” about emblazoning a new bill with Trump’s visage — despite current federal law which bars living people from being immortalized on U.S. currency.
Top Treasury Department officials for months have reportedly pushed the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to create templates of a $250 note with the president’s face, in an apparent nod to the country’s 250th anniversary celebration this year. A prototype design, first reported by the Washington Post, would also feature Bessent’s signature.
Federal law has banned the use of living figures on legal tender in the U.S. for more than 150 years. And, speaking to reporters during a news conference on Thursday, Bessent acknowledged that roadblock to a proposed Trump note.
“As treasury secretary, I have two mandates for U.S. currency,” said Bessent. “At present, no living person can be on U.S. currency, and the currency must say ‘in God we trust.’”
Bessent, however, pointed out there is legislation in Congress aimed at dropping the law’s living figures ban.
The “Donald J. Trump $250 Bill Act,” introduced early last year by South Carolina Representative Joe Wilson, would carve out an exception to the existing moratorium, amending federal law to permit living people to be printed on U.S. currency if “the individual is or has been” president.
The legislation would also direct the Treasury Department to print the banknotes, giving the agency one year to complete the job.
In a statement at the time, Wilson said his measure commemorated Trump’s efforts to “fight inflation and help American families,” claiming it was an achievement “deserving of currency recognition.”
“The most valuable bill for the most valuable president!” Wilson said.
A spokesperson for the South Carolina Republican did not immediately return a request for comment on whether the lawmaker had discussed the proposed measure with the White House, or whether he would push House lawmakers to take it up. The legislation has been on ice since February 2025 and remains before the lower chamber’s financial services committee.
Though congressional action on the proposed Trump note appears uncertain, Bessent on Thursday repeatedly cited lawmakers as he sidestepped questions about the $250 bill plan.
“The president doesn’t do it, the House and Senate do it,” he said when asked whether he supported the proposal. “It’s all up at Capitol Hill.”
And Bessent argued political appointees at the Treasury Department — who have reportedly campaigned for the Trump banknote — were simply preparing the agency for congressional action.
“We prepare for everything if it gets passed … we have to prepare in advance,” Bessent told reporters. “You can’t draw something up the day before.”
Bessent contended the response to the proposed $250 bill was “bifurcated,” comparing it to reactions to the 250th anniversary celebrations planned for Washington over the summer. “I don’t think that there’s anything untoward about having the president of the United States on the 250th anniversary bill."
He declined to answer questions about whether he personally approved of the project, though he would ostensibly lend his signature to the currency if it were printed.
It’s unclear whether Congress would approve any proposed measure to greenlight Trump’s $250 banknote. The U.S. has not printed new currency featuring a living person’s face since 1866, when lawmakers outlawed the practice. The post-Civil War measure came in response to a Treasury Department official who put his own face on 5-cent banknotes.
Congress in 2005 allowed a limited run of $1 coins featuring the faces of U.S. presidents but specifically banned printing currency depicting present or living former presidents — and also barred likenesses of presidents from appearing on legal tender within two years of their deaths.
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