Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Congress Wednesday that plans to put Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill have been delayed until long after President Trump leaves office.
Mnuchin told the House Financial Services Committee that plans to unveil the Tubman $20 bill in 2020, as had been set out by the Obama administration, have now been delayed until at least 2026 and the bills won’t be in circulation until at least 2028.
“Mr. Mnuchin, concerned that the president might create an uproar by canceling the new bill altogether, was eager to delay its redesign until Mr. Trump was out of office,” senior Treasury Department officials told The New York Times.
Trump repeatedly raged over Tubman $20 bill:
Trump criticized President Obama’s plans for the bill during the 2016 campaign and reignited those criticisms in April when he complained that the change was “pure political correctness.”
Trump said that Tubman should be added to another bill, like the far less common $2 bill.
“Andrew Jackson had a great history, and I think it’s very rough when you take somebody off the bill,” Trump said.
Trump has long been obsessed with Andrew Jackson, whose portrait hangs in the Oval Office. He appears to see himself in the historical populist hero.
“It was during the Revolution that Jackson first confronted and defied an arrogant elite,” Trump said in 2017 after laying a wreath at Jackson’s tomb. “Does that sound familiar?”
Dems slam admin’s delays:
Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat who introduced the Harriet Tubman Tribute Act in the Senate, slammed the administration for delaying the bill.
“There is no excuse for the administration’s failure to make this redesign a priority,” Shaheen said. “Sadly, this delay sends an unmistakable message to women and girls, and communities of color, who were promised they’d see Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill.”
Maryland Democrat Elijah Cummings called the move “unacceptable.”
“Our currency must reflect the important role women, and especially women of color, have played in our nation’s history,” he said.
