Tuesday, November 26, 2019

What did Donald Trump do today?

He signed a bill authorizing a commemorative coin.

Today, Trump signed a bill authorizing the Treasury to mint a $1 commemorative coin celebrating the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage in 2020.

What's wrong with that?

  • Nothing.

What else did Donald Trump do today?

He patted himself on the back over the centennial of women's suffrage happening during his presidency.

At the signing ceremony, Trump said this:

TRUMP: And I’m curious, why wasn’t it done a long time ago, and also — well, I guess the answer to that is because now I’m President, and we get things done.  We get a lot of things done that nobody else got done.

It's certainly true that no president before Trump had a term that included the year 2020.

The bill Trump signed was introduced in April, and passed unanimously through both houses of Congress. As is typical for uncontroversial bills of this type, the Trump administration took no part in "getting things done."

Trump actually does have a legislative history where women and currency are concerned, though. A new version of the $20 bill with abolitionist and former slave Harriet Tubman replacing Trump's political hero Andrew Jackson was scheduled to come out in 2020. Trump's Secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, delayed that change until 2026—when Trump would be out of office even if re-elected—because Trump said honoring Tubman was “pure political correctness.”

What's wrong with that?

  • It's wrong to take credit for things you had nothing to do with.