WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump says he has directed the Treasury Division to cease minting new pennies, citing the rising price of manufacturing the one-cent coin.
“For a lot too lengthy the USA has minted pennies which accurately price us greater than 2 cents. That is so wasteful!” Trump wrote in a put up Sunday night time on his Reality Social web site. “I’ve instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to cease producing new pennies.”
The transfer by Trump is the most recent in what has been a rapid-fire effort by his new administration to enact sweeping change by way of government order and proclamation on points starting from immigration, to gender and variety, to the identify of the Gulf of Mexico.
Trump had not mentioned his need to eradicate the penny throughout his marketing campaign. However Elon Musk’s so-called Division of Authorities Effectivity raised the prospect in a put up on X final month highlighting the penny’s price.
The U.S. Mint reported dropping $85.3 million within the 2024 fiscal 12 months that resulted in September on the almost 3.2 billion pennies it produced. Each penny price almost $0.037 – up from $0.031 the 12 months earlier than.
The mint additionally loses cash on the nickel, with every of the $0.05 cash costing almost $0.14 to make.
It’s unclear whether or not Trump has the facility to unilaterally eradicate the lowly one-cent coin. Forex specs — together with the scale and steel content material of cash — are dictated by Congress.
However Robert Okay. Triest, an economics professor at Northeastern College, has argued that there is likely to be wiggle room.
“The method of discontinuing the penny within the U.S. is a bit unclear. It could probably require an act of Congress, however the Secretary of the Treasury would possibly be capable to merely cease the minting of latest pennies,” he mentioned final month.
Members of Congress have repeatedly launched laws taking purpose on the zinc coin with copper plating. Proposals through the years have tried to quickly droop the penny’s manufacturing, eradicate it from circulation, or require that costs be rounded to the closest 5 cents, in response to the Congressional Analysis Service.
Proponents of eliminating the coin have cited price financial savings, speedier checkouts at money registers, and the truth that a lot of international locations have already eradicated their one-cent cash. Canada, as an example, stopped minting its penny in 2012.
It wouldn’t be the primary time the U.S. eradicated its least helpful coin. The half-cent coin was discontinued by Congress in 1857.
Trump’s new administration has been sharply targeted on slicing prices, with Musk, who has been introduced on to steer the duty, concentrating on whole businesses and enormous swaths of the federal workforce as he tries to establish a purpose of $2 trillion in financial savings.
“Let’s rip the waste out of our nice nations price range, even when it’s a penny at a time,” Trump wrote in his put up.
Trump despatched the message as he was departing New Orleans after watching the primary half of the Tremendous Bowl.
