Topline
The Trump administration has dropped an Obama-era plan to place Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill, according to comments Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made to Spectrum News, the latest disruption of a 10-year-old plan to put the abolitionist on new versions of the bill.
U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH) demands that American abolitionist heroine Harriet Tubman’s image be put on the $20 bill outside the U.S. Treasury Department June 27, 2019.
Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Key Facts
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Spectrum the Trump administration is “not at present” planning to put Tubman on the bill.
Bessent did not elaborate, Spectrum reported, though the treasury secretary noted changing “an existing bill, whether it’s $1 through $100 takes many years in advance.”
Tubman would replace Andrew Jackson on the front of the $20 bill if the change were made, though President Donald Trump showed opposition to the idea as far back as 2016, calling it “pure political correctness.”
CONTRA
Bessent confirmed last month the Treasury Department is preparing to place Trump on a $250 bill. The plan would require Congress to greenlight an exception to a U.S. law barring a living person’s face from being printed on U.S. currency.
Chief Critic
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., said she was “extremely disappointed to hear that Secretary Bessent has halted plans to put Harriet Tubman’s likeness on the $20 bill,” telling Spectrum, “Bessent may be more interested in illegally plastering Donald Trump’s image on a $250 bill.”
Key Background
Former President Barack Obama sought to replace Jackson with Tubman on the $20 bill in 2016, with plans to make the replacement effective by 2020 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in the U.S. The initiative was shelved by the Trump administration, with Trump suggesting Tubman be placed on the $2 bill. The push for Tubman was revived after former President Joe Biden took office in 2020, with Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, introducing legislation that would place Tubman on the $20 bill by 2025. The legislation was never passed into law.