Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent got testy at the White House briefing Wednesday when CNN's Kaitlan Collins pressed him on the Trump administration's push to put the president's face on a $250 bill — eventually cutting her off mid-question.
Bessent was filling in for press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who is on maternity leave, when Collins went after him on a Washington Post report that two of his political appointees had been pushing the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to design a note featuring Trump's portrait — potentially in violation of federal law, which prohibits living people from appearing on U.S. currency.
Bessent waved it off. "Terribly written, terribly edited," he said of the Post's reporting. "Basically, what it says is that Treasury is following the law."
But Collins wasn't finished. "Politically, do you think it's a good idea when people are struggling to afford gas and groceries?" she asked.
Bessent pushed back, arguing the $250 note was tied to the nation's 250th anniversary celebration — not a vanity project. "I don't think there's anything untoward about having the president of the United States, the person who is president on the 250th anniversary, on the bill," he said.
Then Collins shifted gears, asking whether Treasury's general counsel had resigned over the Justice Department's controversial $1.776 billion anti-weaponization fund. But Bessent had clearly had enough of the CNN reporter at that point.
"I will not be taking any other questions," he said — twice — as Collins tried to follow up on sanctions.
The Post's investigation found that bureau director Patricia Solimene, a 24-year Army veteran and the first woman to hold the post, was abruptly reassigned after repeatedly warning the appointees that producing the note would be illegal without an act of Congress. She signed off with a pointed farewell: "The buck stopped here."
