On Monday, Donald Trump signed the Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commemorative Coin Act. The coin is part of a celebration in honor of the 100-year anniversary of passing the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. The 19th Amendment is the one that grants women the right to vote. Great! The 19th Amendment was passed in 1919 and ratified in 1920. One way or another, we have reached 2019. The coins will appear in January 2020. The facts all line up pretty neatly. Trump, however, has questions.
The bill directs the Treasury Department to mint 400,000 $1 silver coins.
“The $1 coins that we—will be issued under the act will honor the vital history of the women’s suffrage movement,” Trump stated at the bill’s signing, “and celebrate many of the brave heroes who fought for the right to vote, such as Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Harriet Tubman, and Ida B. Wells.”
For Trump, that’s decent. After all, this bill is far from controversial. But Trump couldn’t leave well enough alone. He pondered out loud as to why it took so long to celebrate the centennial of women’s suffrage with this coin. His answer? He’s president now and “we get a lot of things done.”
“They’ve been working on this for years and years. I’m curious why wasn’t it done a long time ago?” the president continued. “And also, I guess the answer to that is because now I’m president, we get things done. We get a lot of things done that nobody else got done.”
He repeated the sentiment, after signing the bill, asking why the coin wasn’t made “a long time ago, years ago?”
Sadly, this is far from satire. It’s unclear what, precisely, Trump is crediting himself for. The passing of time? Signing a bill? Women’s suffrage itself? The entire Trump presidency feels like it exists in an alternative world where facts don’t matter, so perhaps theorizing about why 100-year celebrations didn’t happen “years ago” isn’t all that out of character, after all.
You can watch it below.