Trump’s $250 Bill A 'Novelty Exception’ That Will Be Stopped In Congress | Greg Swenson

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]Let's stick with our theme concerning Donald Trump and his administration is preparing to print a new $250 bill that could feature a portrait of him if lawmakers allowed the move. Now, federal law bars printing US money with the image of any living person, but Trump allies in Congress have introduced legislation that would make an exception for him. Now, let's now speak with Greg Swenson who is chair of Republicans Overseas and Greg joins us now from Washington D.C. Greg, hello, welcome.

[00:00:34]>> Aisha, good to see you again.

[00:00:35]>> It is. I feel I've not spoken to you for a while. Is life good?

[00:00:39]>> Yeah, everything's great except I'm capped at 90 days in your great country, so >> [laughter] >> the new tax code has affected my my residency. And if anyone from the HMRC is listening, I am definitely not a resident of the United Kingdom.

[00:00:54]>> Okay, just as he's he I hope you've got that. That's that's on that's on the record now. So, look, what do you make about this? Uh Donald Trump's face on a new bill. Are you up for that?

[00:01:04]>> Yeah, I'm up for it, Aisha, and I think the key word that you you mentioned was was exception, you know, and I don't I don't necessarily advocate, you know, making a habit of this, but I think an exception for the 250th birthday of the country and and the fact that it's on a $250 bill, which I don't think will end up being a you know, a currency that's used frequently. I think it's more of a novelty, so for for that reason I think it's okay.

[00:01:33]>> And you don't think it sort of sort of slightly veers into looking a bit narcissistic and if this is not a thing that has been done, it looks a bit weird to do it just because it's Donald Trump?

[00:01:43]>> Well, totally. I mean, you know, but he's also put his name on everything he could possibly put it on, you know, so I think to suggest the president has got a a robust ego is probably an understatement. [laughter] But don't think you know this this doesn't shock me. Although I don't think it will happen by the way cuz it has to be approved by the Congress and my guess is it won't it won't get the votes.

[00:02:08]>> Mhm. And look in terms of the conversation we were having before I don't know if you you caught much of it but is Andrew Weissman who you know former FBI bigwig. I mean he is saying that misinformation in America and that politicians have been lying too much including Donald Trump. He thinks that there should be a statute introduced where if politicians lie then you know they should face the the the full force of of the law. What do you think about that?

[00:02:37]>> Yeah I think that's a little much. I mean politicians are are some of them are really good liars. Some of them not so good but but the president you know for all the criticism he gets about lying I I thought which I think is is a myth in many ways. I mean please tell me some some lies that he's done. He he exaggerates and he uses hyperbole for sure but he is the most transparent candid president we've ever had.

[00:03:01]Sometimes it gets him in trouble cuz he's remarkably candid. You know he just sort of says what's on his mind without a filter. And and that's refreshing in many respects and again sometimes you know that when when you're that refreshing there you're you're bound to get into trouble once in a while but I I don't you know I'd love to hear the you know the the journalist you know examples of of Trump lying. It's it's funny but again I'm not defending the politicians that lie cuz they just do it habitually and and that's not new.

[00:03:30]I think if if there if there was some sort of rule against it I'm not sure there'd be any politicians left.

[00:03:36]>> But you don't remember when the inauguration happened and I mean that just was not true about the the numbers that I mean that I mean I don't really care either way that that's the but that clearly we had Sean Sean Spicer going these number this is like huge number of people is this number of people. It just wasn't that number of people, Greg.

[00:03:55]>> Yeah, that I mean I'm sure we can find some examples. I thought one is sort of to me trivial. I'm with you.

[00:04:01]>> yeah, I mean I'm also trivial, but it is like you said there's no I mean that's that was just was not true, right? You and I we've done lots of work there. We just know that wasn't true.

[00:04:09]>> I think Sean Spicer, you know, would probably like to take that one back, but and I remember it was like it was like school yard, you know, school yard argument or bullying, you know, it's just my crowd was bigger than your crowd, you know, it was it was kind of silly and again I I know he definitely exaggerates. He he uses the term, you know, greatest and biggest and you know, we've never seen a crowd that big before, you know, there there is some hyperbole there, but but I'd love I'd love to hear like what's an actual lie?

[00:04:35]Did he, you know, did he say that I never talked to my son about his international business dealings and then there's a a picture at Cafe Milano with with a couple of guys from Kazakhstan and and Russia. And so, you know, those are kind of lies that are meaningful, but I >> Ah, so there's meaningful lies and there's there's other lies.

[00:04:53]>> Yeah. You know, I feel like I'm getting in trouble with nuns at school. Um, you know, it's it's it's not I'm not condoning it, but I think, you know, he's he's actually much more candid and open and and if he exaggerates, okay, guilty. He's he's the the the chief exaggerator.

[00:05:12]>> Okay. Well, look, Greg, always good to catch up with you and hopefully when you're over next time we can catch up in person. Um, thank you.

[00:05:19]>> Really.

[00:05:20]>> Thanks for joining us. That's Greg uh Swenson. So many messages coming in about the um Trump bill. Uh Kieran says uh Donald Trump's face on a $250 bill makes the US currency look like Monopoly uh money. Uh Steve says yet another vanity project by Trump. He lies, he never beat Biden, he just sent his thugs up to Capitol Hill.

[00:05:43]That's Steve from Surrey. Uh Jan says this guy's making my blood boil. Trump lies frequently, we all know it. I think we just heard from Greg, he's he's just the exaggerator-in-chief.

[00:05:53]Um Richard says, "Let's hope this new $250 bill has got a weather vane on the reverse side." Um Charlie says, "Do you think this new bill is in preparation for the runaway inflation that the orange one is uh causing to avoid the need uh for wheelbarrows of cash as has happened in other countries before?"

[00:06:10]Well, Charlie, that's quite an ominous prediction. Um Stuart says, "As all notes have nicknames, will the 250 one be known as Trump?" Hilarious for any small children or childish adults like me. We love childish adults uh Stuart.

[00:06:23]And uh Lisa says, um "The best that can be said about this latest vanity project it is that it will serve as a reminder of how not to do uh leadership." And Jan says, "Will no one stand up to Trump's ridiculous whims and fancies? I uh despair."

[00:06:39]>> The White House has announced it's going to be pushing forward with printing $250 notes with, wait for it, Donald Trump's face on them in commemoration of America's 250th birthday party. Uh this is the latest project designed to secure Trump's legacy. Other plans included a huge 250-ft arch in Washington and an now infamous ballroom for the White House.

[00:07:03]Tom Rivers is a former ABC News correspondent and he joins me now.

[00:07:09]Welcome to the show, Tom.

[00:07:11]>> Good to be with you.

[00:07:12]>> Now, I can't work out is this $250 note something you can keep in your wallet and pay for your gas or is it a memorial, a a piece of memorabilia which you would frame and hang in your loo?

[00:07:24]>> Probably the latter, but you could probably crawl into the Traisman bar in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, go up to the guy and say, "I'd like a Bud Light and I'd like to pay you with with my $250 bill." Uh we'll see what kind of reaction we would get with that. But no, it's something you're going to put up on the wall. And you know, 250 years old, it's a big deal.

[00:07:43]Um thinking back 50 years ago, the 200th, the bicentennial, everybody and their mother got into the act. We had you know, uh ceremonial coins that were produced, a dollar I think with Ike on the dollar. We had a 50 cent uh piece as well and a quarter. I might have one or two of those quarters left.

[00:08:04]But uh everybody was getting into the act. Where I come from, out at the Minnesota Zoo, there was a naming contest for uh the buffalo that was uh born just a couple of days before the 4th of July and I still remember the entry, the winning entry was bisonnial.

[00:08:21]So yes, the uh the spirits are pretty high for the 250th.

[00:08:24]>> The bicentennial, I absolutely love it.

[00:08:26]Now, uh technically, no living president can appear on US currency. Does Trump have to change the law or does he say, "This isn't real currency?"

[00:08:37]>> No, it's it's uh it has to go to Congress and he probably the thumbs up from the House of Representatives, but he is probably going to be short in the Senate where he needs 60 votes. He's got the 53 in the Republican side, so it it may not happen.

[00:08:53]But I've seen a mock-up. Uh you probably have as well. You know, we're kind of used to seeing, you know, Trump get out that thick felt-tip marker when he does those executive orders.

[00:09:03]Kind of a smaller version of that in the corner of the bill and you've got kind of a stern-looking Trump in the middle. The artwork, you'll find this interesting, was done by a uh Briton by the name of Ian Alexander. So if in fact it does come to fruition, there will be yet another special relationship connection between the UK and the US.

[00:09:27]>> I love the fact that this is uh a British artist that's uh doing this, but this is um you know, very Trumpian, obviously, uh that it's all about him, the triumphal arch and so on and so forth. The the repainting of the um uh water uh in Washington, D.C. I can't remember what it's called, that huge pool in uh Washington.

[00:09:49]>> pool.

[00:09:50]>> The reflecting pool.

[00:09:50]>> the muck in the reflecting pool?

[00:09:53]>> Uh it's all pretty appalling. How do the voters Does it just split along party lines? MAGA Trump think it's the best thing ever? Democrats are appalled?

[00:10:03]>> Uh it's it's hard to really, you know, argue against it. You know, I would be You'd have to make the point, I like garbage in the reflecting pool between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. Um it's It's something that that's good for all of Americans. He has done it. And again, you've you alluded to the fact that the ballroom is being constructed as we speak. That again is coming from private money.

[00:10:30]So, the taxpayers have been bailed on that one. One really strange thing, Ed, they're building a kind of a mocked-up arena on the South Lawn.

[00:10:39]Uh we're going to be having, I guess, mixed martial arts going to be going on in the middle of June. Part of the 4th of July celebrations this summer.

[00:10:50]Uh something you and I have never seen before, but uh something is going to be a a spectacular uh on the on the lawn, and something we're going to be watching very, very closely, indeed.

[00:11:01]>> I can't wait. That's Tom Rivers, the former ABC News correspondent, coming on to talk about the fact that Donald Trump has announced that he wants to have a $250 note with his face on it to celebrate America's 250th birthday. I've got to confess that if I had the opportunity to acquire one of these, I probably would.

[00:11:20]It's sort of so horrific, it's utterly compelling.