The lawmakers argue that the gold in the U.S. Mint could have links to illegal foreign sources.
Read more Trump officials planned to mark 2.7 million living people as dead, whistleblower says
Senate Democrats on Thursday urged the Trump administration to halt production of a commemorative 250th anniversary solid gold coin that would bear the president’s image, citing concerns that some of the U.S. Mint’s gold could have links to foreign cartels.
A federal arts commission staffed with Trump appointees in March approved the 24-karat coin, which would show President Donald Trump leaning on a desk with clenched fists and be up to three inches in diameter, a design personally approved by the president.
But the coin should be shelved because of recent reports that some gold used by the Mint was sourced from countries where the precious metal is mined illegally, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts) and Ron Wyden (Oregon) — the top Democrats on the Senate Banking and Finance committees, respectively — argued in a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Mint Director Paul Hollis that was viewed by The Washington Post.
The New York Times in April reported on the foreign supply chain for American gold, including gold from Colombian mines controlled by drug cartels, or Peruvian and Mexican pawn shops. The gold has been sourced from other countries for years, across Democratic and Republican administrations, according to the Times.
“At the very least, the Mint should ensure that a coin intended to honor the nation’s 250th anniversary is not made of gold linked to exploitation and criminal activity,” Warren and Wyden wrote, asking the Mint to stop all production on the coin and conduct a public audit of the supply chain. They said the coin “is more befitting a monarchy than a democracy.”
Similar commemorative coins typically sell for thousands of dollars.
A spokesperson for the Treasury Department did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday, but they previously told the Times that the administration is taking steps to identify its gold sources and is monitoring its purchases.
“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,” U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach previously told The Post.
The lawmakers cannot compel the administration to stop producing the coin on their own. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nevada) introduced a bill to bar any living president from being featured on U.S. currency, but it is unlikely to pass while Republicans remain in control of Congress and would need to be signed by the president.
A second panel, the bipartisan Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee, is also supposed to approve coins before they can be produced. That committee in February refused to consider the coin.
Read more Trump unfazed by GOP revolt as lawmakers seek political distance
“The CCAC has not been presented with a Trump gold coin for review,” said Donald Scarinci, a coin collector and Democrat who sits on the committee. “If they make it without our review, it will be illegal.”
The coin is one of several projects that have become magnets for controversy as Trump and his allies seek to put the president’s mark on Washington with more than two years left in his second term.
Trump officials have worked to put his face on a new $250 bill, his signature on circulating paper money, and to add his name to the U.S. Institute of Peace. Trump’s name also was added to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, but a federal judge recently ordered that it be removed.
Trump has also demolished the White House’s East Wing to build a sprawling ballroom with a security apparatus underground, proposed a new visitor screening center, started construction on a triumphal arch near the Lincoln Memorial and remade the White House Rose Garden. Many of the projects face legal challenges.
Most Americans have opposed many of the projects. Fifty-six percent of Americans oppose Trump’s decision to tear down the White House’s East Wing to make way for his planned ballroom, according to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll conducted in April.
The idea of Trump’s signature on paper money was even less popular, with 68 percent of Americans opposed to the Treasury plan, while 12 percent support it, the poll found. The plan provoked a negative reaction from Republicans, with 28 percent in favor and 40 percent opposed.
Warren and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) sent a separate letter to Bessent in April inquiring about the announcement that Trump’s signature would appear on paper currency. A Treasury official responded to the letter, saying Bessent “has complete discretion” over the design and production of paper money, and the decision to include Trump’s signature “is in line with the statute,” according to a copy of the response obtained by The Post.
Only one past president, Calvin Coolidge, was featured on a U.S. coin in his lifetime. Coolidge’s portrait appeared on a commemorative coin when he was president in 1926, the nation’s sesquicentennial. It had an image of George Washington overlaid, and the image of Coolidge sparked controversy. Most of the coins were later melted.
Read more Democrats are worried this upstart candidate could cost them in November
