The Trump administration has opened a new front in its war on “woke,” this time in a place few Americans ever think to look: the nation’s pocket change.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the administration quietly scrapped plans to commemorate the abolition of slavery, women’s suffrage, and the Civil Rights Movement in newly minted quarters ahead of the nation’s 250th birthday.
The U.S. Mint had been developing those themes for years, with teams of historians, artists, and federal panels sketching out five special-edition coins that were never formally announced.
Abolitionist Frederick Douglass was supposed to appear on one of the new U.S. quarters to commemorate the end of chattel slavery.
Instead of abolitionist Frederick Douglass, a suffragist holding a “votes for women” sign, or Ruby Bridges walking into a newly desegregated school, the Mint revealed Wednesday that the 2026 quarters will feature George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and James Madison—plus a tableau of pilgrims glimpsing the shores of North America.
The unveiling coincided with an even more controversial debate coming to a head: whether to put President Donald Trump’s face on a new $1 coin. Senate Democrats moved this week to block the idea, citing long-standing precedent against featuring a living or sitting president on circulating currency.
The administration has given little explanation for the sudden pivot. But considering Trump’s steady campaign against diversity, equity, and inclusion programs—and his complaints that museums and cultural institutions focus too much on the “negative” parts of U.S. history—the shift fits neatly into a larger ideological project.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has final approval over new coin designs, and his decisions will likely reflect the administration’s preference for traditional imagery, avoiding anything that could be read as a nod to contemporary debates over race or representation.
This week alone brought another example of the Trump administration’s war on “woke,” when Secretary of State Marco Rubio scrapped the State Department’s use of the Calibri font, reversing a Biden-era accessibility effort that Rubio labeled “wasteful.”
Suffragists march from New York to the Woman Suffrage Procession in Washington, D.C., on the eve of Woodrow Wilson's inauguration in 1913.
Still, the Mint has maintained that the new quarters fulfill the spirit of the semiquincentennial.
“The designs on these historic coins depict the story of America’s journey toward a ‘more perfect union,’ and celebrate America’s defining ideals of liberty,” acting Mint Director Kristie McNally said.
Congress authorized the project in 2021, near the end of Trump’s first term. The statute authorized up to five new quarters and a $1 coin marking the 250th anniversary, and it required that at least one quarter feature a woman’s contribution to the nation’s founding or early history.
According to the Journal, the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee—a nonpartisan group of artists, experts, and political appointees—then began hashing out themes. Members consulted with the Smithsonian, the National Park Service, and outside historians to determine which histories to highlight.
“We’re trying to be very sensitive to how people will interpret the themes and designs of the coins,” Dennis Tucker, a former member of the committee, told the Journal. “They’re much more than just money. They’re things that kids are going to be looking at, and grown-ups are going to be looking at.”
By late 2024, the group made its picks: Douglass and the hand of someone freed from slavery for the abolition quarter; a suffragist to represent women’s rights; and a portrait of Bridges paired with a civil rights march and the line “we shall overcome.”
A second federal panel, the Commission of Fine Arts, reviewed the same themes and offered some alternative recommendations. But Trump fired its members earlier this year, and the commission has yet to be reconstituted—a sign of how abruptly the administration abandoned this work.
U.S. Deputy Marshals escort 6-year-old Ruby Bridges from William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans in 1960.
Before leaving office, then-U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen approved a final set of coin designs, according to someone familiar with the process. But the Mint never published them, and the advisory committee never reviewed alternatives before Wednesday’s reveal.
The new themes stop the historical narrative at the Civil War, with nothing after 1865 appearing on the quarters. Similarly, only the Mayflower Compact coin includes a woman on the front.
The Mint also released semiquincentennial editions of the dime, nickel, and half-dollar. Pennies, of course, are no longer being produced.
Regarding the possible Trump $1 coin, federal officials haven’t yet made a final decision. Recent images shared online by the Mint include three Trump portraits on the front and several possible reverse designs, all featuring eagles.
If his coin moves forward, it would be entirely in keeping with Trump’s larger project: to scrub away the country’s most difficult history, railing against anything tied to DEI, and elevating his own image whenever possible.
In that sense, the fight over what appears on a quarter is not small at all. Rather, it reveals the story about the United States that this administration wants to tell.
