Trump-appointed arts panel approves gold coin featuring president’s image

Summary

• Trump's arts panel approved a commemorative gold coin with his image, despite criticism that it resembles monarchical practice.
• The US Mint will produce the non-circulating coin of Trump; Secretary Bessent will likely order it minted.
• Critics say the coin and Trump's name on public institutions distort American values and may breach coin laws.

WASHINGTON - A federal arts panel comprised of members appointed by Donald Trump on March 19 unanimously approved a commemorative gold coin featuring his image, the latest effort by the administration to celebrate the president.

Critics, including Democrats and members of another federal arts committee, said minting a coin with a sitting president’s image went against American values, especially as the nation celebrates its 250th birthday this year and the end of British monarchical rule.

During a presentation by a US Mint official to the Commission of Fine Arts, discussion turned to what diametre the 24-carat coin should be, up to a maximum of three inches.

Chamberlain Harris, 26, a White House aide whom Mr Trump appointed to the commission this year, said the biggest possible coin would be Mr Trump’s preference.

“The larger the better,” she said, shortly before the coin was approved by the entire panel.

The US Mint will now produce final dimensions for the coin. Mr Trump has already approved the design and it is expected that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, a Trump loyalist, will order the coin to be minted.

The White House referred questions to the Treasury Department.

US Treasurer Brandon Beach said in a statement to Reuters, “As we approach our 250th birthday, we are thrilled to prepare coins that represent the enduring spirit of our country and democracy, and there is no profile more emblematic for the front of such coins than that of our serving President, Donald J. Trump.”

The US Mint did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The coin would depict a stern-looking Mr Trump leaning over a desk and staring forward. It is based on a photograph displayed in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington.

“Monarchs and dictators put their faces on coins, not leaders of a democracy,” Mr Jeff Merkley, a Democratic US senator, told Reuters in a statement.

“Trump’s administration moving to put his face on a commemorative coin is his latest effort to distort the meaning of America’s 250th birthday.”

The Trump administration has also proposed a different, US$1 coin featuring Mr Trump’s image that would mark America’s 1776 Declaration of Independence from British rule.

Latest effort to celebrate Trump

Mr Donald Scarinci, a member of the bipartisan Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee - a separate federal panel that refused to consider the gold coin proposal in February - said the one dollar coin would be in clear breach of a law that prohibits the image of a sitting or former president being on a dollar coin until three years after their death.

There is a potential loophole, however, when it comes to the gold coin, because unlike the dollar coin, which would be in circulation, the gold coin is a non-circulating collector coin.

Mr Scarinci said under law both his panel and the Commission of Fine Arts are meant to approve any coins.

“But we still fully expect them to plough ahead and mint both coins,” Mr Scarinci said.

The gold coin proposal is the Trump administration’s latest effort to place his name and image on public institutions and US currency.

Since he reentered the White House in January 2025, Mr Trump has affixed his name to prominent Washington buildings, a planned class of Navy warships, a visa programme for wealthy foreigners, a government-run prescription drug website and federal savings accounts for children.

There was fierce backlash against the renaming of Washington’s premier performance venue as the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.

Mr Trump’s handpicked Kennedy Center board of trustees voted on March 16 to close the institution for two years for renovations.

Just up the Potomac River sits the US Institute of Peace, a government-funded think-tank established by Congress and focused on conflict avoidance.

On Dec 3, the State Department renamed it the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace, three months before Mr Trump began a war with Iran.