AURN News with Ebony McMorris

White House Halts Tubman $20 Plan While Preparing for Trump’s Proposed $250 Bill

Ebony McMorris
July 9, 2026

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent holds up a mock-up of a proposed $250 bill featuring President Donald Trump while speaking to reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on May 28, 2026, in Washington. The Trump administration has put plans for the Harriet Tubman $20 bill on hold while preparing for the proposed $250 bill, which would require an act of Congress. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

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WASHINGTON (AURN News) — A decade-long plan to put Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill is on hold after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Spectrum News the department is not currently planning to move forward with the redesign. When asked whether Treasury was still planning to put Tubman on the $20 bill, Bessent replied, “We are not at present.”

The plan to replace Andrew Jackson with Tubman on the front of the bill dates back to the Obama administration in 2016. President Donald Trump’s first term shelved it, President Joe Biden revived it and now it is on hold again.

Meanwhile, while the Tubman $20 redesign remains on hold, the administration is preparing for a proposed $250 bill featuring President Donald Trump’s portrait to mark the nation’s 250th anniversary. Bessent noted that “no living person can be on U.S. currency” under current law and said Treasury has prepared for the proposal if Congress approves it, adding, “we will stick to the law.”

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., said she is far more disappointed to see Trump push for his own face on U.S. currency than to see Tubman’s legacy pushed aside again.

Click play to listen to the report from AURN White House Correspondent Ebony McMorris. For more news, follow @E_N_McMorris & @aurnonline.

White House Correspondent Ebony McMorris is a native Washingtonian and University of South Carolina alumna. Her passion is mentoring young adults by teaching community empowerment and media education. She is an NAB member and board member of the Thurgood Marshall Center and was presented the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award for contributing more than 4,000 hours of community service under the Obama Administration.