Federal Arts Panel Backs Gold Coin Featuring Trump’s Image Despite Criticism

A federal arts commission made up of Trump appointees has given unanimous approval for a commemorative gold coin displaying the president's likeness. Critics argue that featuring a sitting president on currency goes against democratic principles, especially during America's 250th anniversary year.

WASHINGTON – A federal arts commission consisting entirely of Donald Trump appointees gave unanimous approval Thursday for a commemorative gold coin that will feature the president’s likeness, marking another step in the administration’s efforts to honor Trump.

Opposition voices, including Democratic lawmakers and members of a separate federal arts committee, argued that placing a current president’s image on currency contradicts democratic principles, particularly as America marks its 250th anniversary and the end of monarchical British control.

During the Commission of Fine Arts meeting, where a U.S. Mint representative made the presentation, commissioners discussed the appropriate diameter for the 24-carat coin, with options reaching up to three inches.

Chamberlain Harris, a 26-year-old White House staff member whom Trump named to the commission this year, indicated the president would favor the maximum size option.

“The larger the better,” Harris stated just before the panel gave its full approval to the coin.

The U.S. Mint will now determine final specifications for the coin. Trump has already given his approval to the design, and expectations are that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, a Trump supporter, will authorize production.

The White House directed inquiries to the Treasury Department. Neither Treasury nor the U.S. Mint provided immediate responses to requests for comment.

The proposed coin will show Trump with a serious expression, leaning forward over a desk while looking ahead. The design draws from a photograph housed at Washington’s National Portrait Gallery.

“Monarchs and dictators put their faces on coins, not leaders of a democracy,” Democratic U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley stated to Reuters.

“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 administration has also put forward plans for a separate $1 coin bearing Trump’s image to commemorate America’s 1776 break from British rule.

Donald Scarinci, who serves on the bipartisan Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee – a different federal panel that declined to review the gold coin proposal last month – explained that the dollar coin would clearly violate existing law prohibiting any sitting or former president’s image on dollar coins until three years following their death.

However, a potential legal exception may exist for the gold coin since it would be a non-circulating collector’s item, unlike the dollar coin intended for general use.

Scarinci noted that federal law requires both his committee and the Commission of Fine Arts to approve coin designs.

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

This gold coin initiative represents the administration’s newest attempt to attach Trump’s name and image to public institutions and American currency.

Since returning to the White House in January 2025, Trump has placed his name on major Washington buildings, a planned series of Navy vessels, an investment visa program for wealthy foreigners, a government prescription drug website, and federal children’s savings accounts.

Strong opposition emerged over renaming Washington’s main performance venue as the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.

Trump’s selected Kennedy Center board members voted Monday to shut down the facility for two years while undergoing renovations.

Along the Potomac River, the U.S. Institute of Peace, a congressionally-established government-funded research organization focused on preventing conflicts, was renamed the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace by the State Department on December 3, three months before Trump initiated military action against Iran.