Trump to Sign U.S. Dollar Bills This Summer
For the first time in American history, a sitting president’s signature will appear on U.S. paper currency, with President Donald Trump set to sign dollar bills beginning this summer as part of a sweeping redesign timed to mark the nation’s 250th anniversary of independence.
According to a Reuters report, the new notes will carry the signatures of Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, replacing the longstanding practice of featuring the U.S. Treasurer’s signature alongside that of the Treasury Secretary. The change ends an unbroken tradition stretching back to 1861, when the U.S. government first issued federal currency.
The first redesigned $100 bills bearing both signatures are scheduled to be printed in June, with other denominations to follow in subsequent months. Treasury officials noted the new bills may take several weeks to circulate through the banking system.
The Treasury Department is still producing notes carrying the signatures of former Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and former Treasurer Lynn Malerba, who served under President Joe Biden. Malerba becomes the last in a continuous line of treasurers whose signatures have graced U.S. federal currency since 1861.
Bessent, in an official statement, framed the change as fitting recognition of both the nation’s semiquincentennial milestone and what he described as economic achievements under Trump’s second term.
“There is no more powerful way to recognise the historic achievements of our great country and President Donald J. Trump than U.S. dollar bills bearing his name, and it is only appropriate that this historic currency be issued at the Semiquincentennial,” Bessent said.
The signature change is the latest in a broader pattern of the Trump administration placing the president’s name on federal buildings, institutions, government programmes, warships, and coins. A federal arts panel whose members Trump appointed approved last week a commemorative gold coin bearing his image.
However, a proposed circulating $1 Trump coin hit a legal wall. U.S. law prohibits the depiction of living individuals on circulating coins, effectively blocking the initiative.
A statute governing the printing of Federal Reserve notes grants the Treasury broad discretion to alter designs to guard against counterfeiting, while requiring retention of certain fixed elements, including the phrase “In God We Trust,” and permitting only portraits of deceased individuals on bills. Treasury officials confirmed that the overall bill designs will remain unchanged beyond the signature swap.
Former Treasurer Jovita Carranza, who served in Trump’s first term, welcomed the move, calling it “a powerful symbol of American resilience, the enduring strength of free enterprise and the promise of continued greatness.”
Current Treasurer Brandon Beach, whose name will not appear on the redesigned notes, also issued a supportive statement, describing Trump as the architect of a “golden age economic revival.”