If Donald Trump is known for one thing, it’s his obsession with slapping his name and face on buildings, playing cards, passports, coins, hats, and other inanimate objects. If he’s known for another, it’s his lifelong belief that the rules don’t apply to him. So it should surprise exactly no one to learn that his administration has been pushing the people who print the nation’s cash to make a $250 bill bearing his name and signature, despite the fact that it’s against the law. In fact, the only surprise is that (1) administration officials are only now getting around to this, and (2) they haven’t (yet) asked for Trump’s face to replace the ones currently printed on all money.
The Washington Post reports that a pair of Trump political appointees at the Treasury Department — U.S. treasurer Brandon Beach and his senior adviser, Mike Brown — have, since last year, been pressing the Bureau of Engraving and Printing “to design a $250 bill featuring the president’s portrait,” according to numerous people familiar with the matter. That campaign has reportedly involved sending agency staff “mock-up designs for the note” and dismissing concerns raised by staff about the “legal and procedural obstacles” for putting it into circulation, not to mention the much longer timeline that would be necessary for doing so.
