Trump Tells U.S. Treasury to Cease Making ‘Wasteful’ Pennies

Donald Trump introduced over the weekend that the U.S. would cease minting pennies. And it is perhaps the primary good factor the fascist president has achieved since taking workplace.

“For much too lengthy the US has minted pennies which accurately price us greater than 2 cents. That is so wasteful!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I’ve instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to cease producing new pennies. Let’s rip the waste out of our nice nations price range, even when it’s a penny at a time.”

The price of minting a penny has lengthy been larger than the face worth of the coin, however the worth has gotten even larger lately. Making a penny price 2.7 cents in 2022 however skyrocketed to three.7 cents in 2024, in keeping with the Wall Street Journal.

Supporters of eliminating the penny level to different international locations which have achieved the identical with success. Canada removed the penny in 2012, whereas Australia ditched the 1-cent piece within the Nineteen Nineties. The final time the U.S. stopped minting a coin was the half-cent piece in 1857. Adjusted for inflation, the half-cent was price roughly 18 cents in as we speak’s forex when it was abolished within the mid-Nineteenth century. Again in 2014, Gizmodo wrote about this little fun fact when the worth of the half-cent from 1857 was price a few dime.

Defenders of the penny argue that it might be too troublesome for retailers to spherical funds up or all the way down to the closest 5 cents, however different international locations try this simply tremendous. And when the U.S. removed the half-penny folks little doubt felt the identical.

One other factor the U.S. might do to economize is ditch the $1 invoice, which has a a lot shorter lifespan than a $1 coin. The U.S. has a $1 coin that has by no means been broadly adopted, thanks largely to the existence of the $1 invoice. Canada ditched its $1 invoice, which led to widespread adoption of the $1 coin. And if the U.S. needs to truly see its folks use the coin, it’ll must cease making $1 payments.

The U.S. might additionally change the supplies in its forex because the nation is caught within the twentieth century with payments made from cotton and linen. Nations like Britain, Australia, and Canada have adopted polymer-based currencies which are capable of flow into for for much longer with out getting torn to shreds and needing to get replaced.

Eliminating the penny simply is sensible at this level and it’s good that Trump needs to abolish it. However nearly all the pieces else the president is presently doing might be simply labeled as “dangerous” or simply plain “evil.”

Trump has tried to abolish each USAID and the Shopper Monetary Safety Bureau whereas permitting Elon Musk and his rogue band of 20-something dipshits to ransack federal businesses for extremely delicate information. Musk is reportedly setting his sights on Social Security and the Pentagon subsequent. And whereas the courts have formally put a pause on lots of Trump’s excessive actions, there’s no indication but {that a} courtroom order goes to cease Musk from simply doing no matter he needs.

In the meantime, the Democrats are “combating again” with a number of powerful phrases however little or no motion. And a few Democratic leaders aren’t even bothering with powerful phrases, as an alternative insisting they haven’t any actual energy.

“What leverage do now we have?” Democratic Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries mentioned in a viral video clip over the weekend. “They management the Home, the Senate, and the presidency. It’s their authorities.”