Treasury prepares $250 Trump bill if law changes, Bessent says

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the department was preparing to print a proposed $250 bill with Donald Trump’s portrait if Congress changes federal law to allow a living person on U.S. banknotes. Bessent tied the idea to the nation’s 250th anniversary and said Treasury had to follow the law, while also saying there was nothing “untoward” about featuring the president on a semiquincentennial note.

The proposal depends on a bill introduced by Rep. Joe Wilson, a South Carolina Republican, in February 2025. Wilson’s “Donald J. Trump $250 Bill Act” has remained stalled in the House Financial Services Committee since it was referred there, keeping the measure from advancing. Wilson’s office has also circulated AI concept artwork showing Trump on the left side of a $250 note.

A Treasury official said the Bureau of Engraving and Printing was conducting “appropriate planning and due diligence” for a possible $250 commemorative note. No change in law has cleared Congress, and the proposal remains contingent on lawmakers first opening the door to a living person’s image on currency.

A Congressional Research Service paper says the Treasury secretary may determine which portraits appear on currency and securities only if the person is deceased. Bessent also said current currency rules bar living people from appearing on U.S. money and require the phrase “In God We Trust.” All circulating U.S. currency is printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and placed into circulation by the Federal Reserve.

U.S. paper money dates to a $2 note authorized by the Continental Congress in June 1776, and Congress later authorized the first greenbacks in 1862 during the Civil War. Theodore Roosevelt became the first president featured on a circulating coin in 1909, and the presidential dollar coin program began in 2007. A 2025 bill called the TRUMP Act sought to prohibit images of living presidents or any living person on U.S. coins or currency.