Trump administration shelves plan to put Harriet Tubman on $20 bill

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump administration was no longer planning to put Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill, putting on hold a redesign that had been revived under President Joe Biden. Asked whether Treasury was still moving ahead, Bessent answered, “We are not at present,” and gave no further explanation.

The decision reversed a plan first announced by the Obama administration in 2016, when officials said Tubman would replace Andrew Jackson on the front of the $20 note. If completed, the redesign would have made Tubman the first Black person to appear on U.S. paper currency, a milestone that had carried both symbolic and historical weight.

Tubman, born into slavery in the early 1820s, escaped bondage and then helped hundreds of others flee through the Underground Railroad. Her life made her one of the most recognized figures in American abolitionist history, and her name became a test of whether the country would expand the lineup of people who appear on everyday money.

The idea became one of the most politically charged currency debates of the past decade. During his first presidential campaign, Donald Trump dismissed the proposal as “pure political correctness” and said Tubman could instead appear on a $2 bill or another denomination. The redesign then stalled during his first term.

Under Biden, Treasury revived the project, but former Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen later said the note might not be ready until 2030 because of the anti-counterfeiting work required for a major redesign. That timeline underscored how slowly changes move through the currency system, even when the political will exists to make them.

The broader issue has never been only about a banknote. No new person has appeared on U.S. paper currency since 1928, leaving the $20 bill as one of the clearest symbols of who has traditionally been centered in national memory. Tubman’s removal from the redesign restores the older order for now, even as some officials in the Trump administration have pushed a proposed $250 bill featuring Trump’s portrait for the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence.