Trump’s $250 note is a vulgar violation of the anniversary it commemorates

Donald Trump has never been the kind of president who can reach across the divide and bring America together. His idiosyncratic public speaking style works to fire up his fanatically loyal Maga base, but as his polling ratings show – Trump’s approval ratings hit an all-time low of minus 26 this week – he struggles to reach beyond that.

Trump, therefore, is not necessarily the president you would choose to oversee the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the moment the US marks as its founding.

Other presidents might look for soaring oratory to reflect on a complex legacy over a quarter of a millennium – a country founded on slavery, which fought a civil war, which engaged in the excesses of the Cold War, but also one founded on high ideals, not least the idea of freedom.

Trump is not doing any of that. Instead, he’s building a cage for a UFC fight on the White House lawn, holding a concert – backed by his political allies, leading to multiple artists dropping out – and, predictably, trying to put his face and name on a $250 dollar bill to mark the moment.

Here, though, Trump may have accidentally hit on a symbol more powerful and more telling than he had possibly intended. And the pushback could be swift.

Trump was never subtle as a real estate developer. He slapped his name in huge gold letters on almost every building he constructed, and once he became famous thanks to “The Apprentice”, he would licence his name to pretty much any product going – university courses, golf resorts and even wine and steaks.

Bank notes, though, are a different level entirely. The US commemorates its greatest presidents on its currency. George Washington, the father of the nation, is on the $1. Abraham Lincoln, who won the civil war and ended slavery, on the $5. The club is an elite one – even titans of the 20th century such as Franklin J Roosevelt do not have their face on the dollar.

Crucially, all of these presidents are dead. The US passed a law in 1866 requiring this to be the case: living people are strictly banned from appearing on US currency.

Trump’s efforts to put himself on a banknote, then, not only require him to ignore the roster of far-worthier candidates, but also to change the law and ignore all proper procedure to get it done. The administration had to remove a senior official at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing who refused to cooperate with the plans to create the bank note.

Of course, there is no existing $250 bill – a questionable figure for a banknote presumably chosen to match the anniversary. That does, at least, mean that Trump is not displacing anyone else who already appears on one. But it does mean that the US would be creating a whole new denomination of note just so it can put the President’s face on it – at a time when the world is using cash less than it ever has before.

With cashless shops and bars proliferating, and the world moving rapidly towards electronic payment, the very idea of a banknote feels dated and anachronistic – arguably not unlike the 80-year-old President himself.

Americans are reporting that they are struggling to get by and pay their bills. Inflation is up again, spurred by much higher gas prices – thanks in large part to Trump’s disastrous war with Iran – and the cost of food is ratcheting up once more. Printing a new $250 note – 2.5 times the value of the highest currently in US circulation – feels more than a little out of touch.

But it is in keeping with Trump’s second term, which has been marked by an almost maniacal desire from Trump to put his name on things. Trump has added his name to the US Institute of Peace, and is currently in a legal battle over whether his name can be added to the Kennedy Center theatre in Washington DC. Even during his presidency, Trump sells caps, merch and bibles with his name on them.

Trump has claimed “affordability” isn’t a real word, but is instead some new made-up term, even as he talks endlessly about trying to build a lavish new ballroom in the White House and releases new funds to cover four huge statues of horses in Washington DC with 24-carat gold leaf.

In short, the President seems about as in touch with the needs of ordinary Americans as Marie Antoinette was with the peasantry of 18th century France – and we all know how that turned out.

Big national moments are about symbols – they are what cuts through and what gets remembered. The US capital is covered in memorials to the nation’s greatest presidents for exactly that reason. Trump’s $250 note is crass, vulgar, out of touch, a likely violation of US laws and something that pulls the focus off America as a nation and onto Donald Trump himself.

Perhaps, for just that reason, it is the perfect encapsulation of America at this moment in its history.