By Noah Rothman
Thursday, September 03, 2026
Behold, the face of the president:
Donald Trump’s visage is already circulating on these
gold-finished brass coins. Some have taken exception to the “controversial move” of putting a sitting president’s face
on legal tender, but their objections are unreasonable.
Sure, this hasn’t been done in 100 years, and the last
person to do it was arguably the least imperial president in that century:
Calvin Coolidge. Never mind that his face was partially eclipsed by George
Washington’s. And like the 1926
coin, this one will cost a lot more than it’s worth.
“The rolls of $1 coins (25 to a roll) go for $61. A bag
of 100 coins goes for $154.50,” ABC News reported. Likewise, back in 1926, “few
people cared to part with the required $1 to purchase a commemorative half
dollar,” the historian David Bowers observed. “When all was said and done, the
staggering quantity of 859,408 half dollars went back to the Mint to be
melted!” Perhaps the same fate is in store for Trump’s coins.
So why is everyone so scandalized? It’s not like the
president’s face isn’t everywhere already.
Washington, D.C., residents are intimately acquainted
with Trump’s mug. It adorns banners that grace the façades of the Justice Department,
the Department of the Interior, the Department of Agriculture, and even the
construction projects sprouting up across the city. The rest of the country
will soon share Washington’s experience.
The president’s first series of midterm election ads
designed to promote Republican candidates will reportedly be “heavy on ‘me.’” If the Democratic strategy is to talk about
Trump incessantly, so, too, is Trump’s, according to The Atlantic.
“The president ordered a series of television
advertisements about his own record that will serve as a backdrop to the
hundreds of individual House and Senate contests,” its report read. Even if that’s not what most Americans or
even many Republicans are looking for, that’s what
they’re going to get.
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