The battle over America’s soul has made its way to your pocket change.
In a bold move sure to ignite cultural and political debate, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has officially scrapped the Biden-era coin designs intended to mark the United States’ 250th anniversary, after discovering they prioritized diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) themes over the actual Founding Fathers or the founding events themselves.
“The new Semiquincentennial Quarter designs will celebrate American history and the founding of our great nation,” U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach told Fox News Digital. His words weren’t just patriotic—they were a direct rebuke of the approach taken under former Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who had approved the previous designs just before exiting the Biden administration.
The original designs, quietly greenlit under Biden, leaned heavily into progressive iconography. One quarter depicted arms breaking chains, symbolizing abolition. Another showed women hoisting a concrete slab engraved with “Liberty Equality Justice for Women.” A third featured individuals linking arms beneath the inscription “We shall overcome.” Missing entirely from the series? Any depiction of a Founding Father. Even the coin honoring the Declaration of Independence avoided Washington, Jefferson, or Adams—instead opting for the Liberty Bell.
In other words, under Biden, America’s 250th birthday was going to be commemorated without its founders.
The Trump administration saw this for what it was: a politicized, revisionist rebranding of American history—and swiftly reversed course.
The new, Trump-era coin designs strike a far different tone. One coin shows a pilgrim couple representing the Mayflower Compact. Another features a Continental soldier to honor the Revolutionary War. The Declaration of Independence quarter showcases the Liberty Bell, while the Constitution coin depicts Independence Hall. A fifth coin honors the end of slavery, featuring Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and an image of one person lifting another to their feet—a message of redemption, not division.
This isn’t just about coins—it’s about the narrative they represent. Coins are artifacts of culture. They tell a story. Under Biden, that story was steeped in DEI dogma—group identity, historical grievance, and modern ideological framing. Under Trump, the story shifts back to founding principles: liberty, independence, sacrifice, and national unity.
The shift aligns with the Trump administration’s broader rejection of DEI across the federal government. Executive orders are already rolling back DEI offices and programs, asserting that group-based preferences and enforced ideological conformity have no place in a system built on individual merit and equal treatment under the law.
Not everyone’s happy about that, of course. Senate Democrats have already introduced legislation to block the creation of $1 coins featuring President Trump’s likeness, accusing the administration of attempting to break with “American tradition” by honoring a living president. “While monarchs put their faces on coins, America has never had and never will have a king,” Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto declared.
But the law is clear: 31 USC § 5112(y) gives the Treasury broad authority to redesign circulating coins for the 250th anniversary year—2026. The administration is well within its legal rights to produce both commemorative and circulation currency that reflects a more traditional, patriotic vision of American history.
And, as Treasurer Beach put it, the American people are not clamoring for coinage soaked in progressive dogma. “We have no doubt these new designs will be wildly popular,” he said.
