The Treasury Department has already designed a $250 bill bearing the portrait of President Donald Trump, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday, moving ahead with the visual concept for a high-denomination note that Congress has not yet authorized. Speaking at the White House, Bessent said lawmakers will decide whether to approve the new currency, but added that his department “created the bill” because “we have to be prepared.”
“The president doesn’t do it; the House and the Senate have to do it,” Bessent said, referring to legislation introduced by Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., earlier this year. Wilson’s bill would direct the Treasury’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing to place Trump’s likeness on the new $250 denomination as part of the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations, known as the Semiquincentennial, in 2026.
Bessent sought to distance the administration from the appearance of actively campaigning for the currency, downplaying the move as a routine step. “We’re not pushing anything,” he said. At the same time, he pushed back on any suggestion that Trump’s visage would be out of place on the anniversary commemorations. “There’s nothing inappropriate about it,” he insisted.
The Treasury secretary’s comments came as the administration has repeatedly woven Trump’s name and persona into federal properties and the planned 250th anniversary events. The president has already directed the construction of a National Garden of American Heroes near the National Mall and has sought to have his name affixed to infrastructure projects and facilities across the capital. Earlier attempts to rename the Kennedy Center were rebuffed by Congress earlier this year.
If Congress were to approve Wilson’s bill, Trump would become the first living president to appear on U.S. currency. Current law prohibits the depiction of any living person on federal notes, a practice rooted in the tradition of reserving the honor for the deceased. The proposed $250 bill would also be a new, unusually high denomination; the largest note in circulation is the $100 bill, though higher denominations existed in the past.
The legislation has not advanced in the House, and no companion bill has been introduced in the Senate. Bessent’s disclosure of a finished design, however, signals the administration’s readiness to produce the currency quickly if lawmakers act.