WASHINGTON (AP) — 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 much too lengthy the US has minted pennies which accurately price us greater than 2 cents. That is so wasteful!” Trump wrote in a publish Sunday night time on his Reality Social website. “I’ve instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to cease producing new pennies.”
The transfer by Trump is the newest in what has been a rapid-fire effort by his new administration to enact sweeping change by way of govt order and proclamation on points starting from immigration, to gender and variety, to the title 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 post on X last month highlighting the penny’s price.
The U.S. Mint reported losing $85.3 million within the 2024 fiscal yr that resulted in September on the almost 3.2 billion pennies it produced. Each penny price almost $0.037 — up from $0.031 the yr 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 dimensions and metallic content material of cash ― are dictated by Congress.
However Robert Ok. Triest, an economics professor at Northeastern College, has argued that there is perhaps wiggle room.
“The method of discontinuing the penny within the U.S. is just a little unclear. It could doubtless require an act of Congress, however the Secretary of the Treasury would possibly be capable to merely cease the minting of recent pennies,” he stated final month.
Members of Congress have repeatedly launched laws taking intention on the zinc coin with copper plating. Proposals over time 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 accordance with the Congressional Analysis Service.
Proponents of eliminating the coin have cited price financial savings, speedier checkouts at money registers, and the truth that a variety of nations have already eradicated their one-cent cash. Canada, for 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 centered on chopping prices, with Musk, who has been introduced on to steer the duty, concentrating on whole companies and enormous swaths of the federal workforce as he tries to determine a objective of $2 trillion in financial savings.
“Let’s rip the waste out of our nice nations funds, even when it’s a penny at a time,” Trump wrote in his publish.
Trump despatched the message as he was departing New Orleans after watching the primary half of the Tremendous Bowl.
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AP White Home Correspondent Zeke Miller contributed to this report.
