Donald Trump announced over the weekend that the U.S. would stop minting pennies. And it might be the first good thing the fascist president has done since taking office.
“For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents. This is so wasteful!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies. Let’s rip the waste out of our great nations budget, even if it’s a penny at a time.”
The cost of minting a penny has long been higher than the face value of the coin, but the price has gotten even higher in recent years. Creating a penny cost 2.7 cents in 2022 but skyrocketed to 3.7 cents in 2024, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Supporters of getting rid of the penny point to other countries that have done the same with success. Canada got rid of the penny in 2012, while Australia ditched the 1-cent piece in the 1990s. The last time the U.S. stopped minting a coin was the half-cent piece in 1857. Adjusted for inflation, the half-cent was worth roughly 18 cents in today’s currency when it was abolished in the mid-19th century. Back in 2014, Gizmodo wrote about this little fun fact when the price of the half-cent from 1857 was worth about a dime.
Defenders of the penny argue that it would be too difficult for merchants to round payments up or down to the nearest 5 cents, but other countries do that just fine. And when the U.S. got rid of the half-penny people no doubt felt the same.
Another thing the U.S. could do to save money is ditch the $1 bill, which has a much shorter lifespan than a $1 coin. The U.S. has a $1 coin that has never been widely adopted, thanks in large part to the existence of the $1 bill. Canada ditched its $1 bill, which led to widespread adoption of the $1 coin. And if the U.S. wants to actually see its people use the coin, it’ll need to stop making $1 bills.
The U.S. could also change the materials in its currency since the country is stuck in the 20th century with bills made of cotton and linen. Countries like Britain, Australia, and Canada have adopted polymer-based currencies that are able to circulate for much longer without getting torn to shreds and needing to be replaced.
Getting rid of the penny just makes sense at this point and it’s good that Trump wants to abolish it. But just about everything else the president is currently doing could be easily classified as “bad” or just plain “evil.”
Trump has tried to abolish both USAID and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau while allowing Elon Musk and his rogue band of 20-something dipshits to ransack federal agencies for highly sensitive data. Musk is reportedly setting his sights on Social Security and the Pentagon next. And while the courts have officially put a pause on many of Trump’s extreme actions, there’s no indication yet that a court order is going to stop Musk from just doing whatever he wants.
Meanwhile, the Democrats are “fighting back” with a lot of tough words but very little action. And some Democratic leaders aren’t even bothering with tough words, instead insisting they have no real power.
“What leverage do we have?” Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a viral video clip over the weekend. “They control the House, the Senate, and the presidency. It’s their government.”
