The Trump administration has effected little positive change in the eight-already-feels-like-years months since Papaya Face took office, expending most of its energy on dismantling helpful if flawed legislation, or giving flooding victims the finger by trying to earmark FEMA money for the construction of an isolationist and (ultimately ineffective) eyesore. Beyond the white supremacy-condoning agenda, it’s hard to know exactly what this administration’s priorities are—you know, aside from setting back civil rights about 140 years.
According to CNBC, though, there is at least one Trump official making his department’s objectives clear. Treasury Secretary and producer of Fist Fight Steve Mnuchin announced today that he will focus on stopping counterfeiting in the U.S., which had about $147 million in fake currency floating around in 2015. But he’s tabling the move to put Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill, telling CNBC “ultimately we will be looking at this issue. It’s not something I’m focused on at the moment.”
This isn’t all that surprising—the decision to have Tubman join Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill was made during the Obama administration, and there’s nothing the current president enjoys more than undoing any progress made by his predecessor. Trump’s love of Andrew Jackson probably informed the decision, too. When he was campaigning in 2016, he objected to replacing Jackson (which was the original intent) with Tubman because he thought it was “pure political correctness.” “Been on the bill [Jackson] for many, many years. And, you know, really represented somebody that really was very important to this country,” said the man who seemed to be fondly recalling the Trail Of Tears.
Mnuchin echoed Trump’s observation of just how long we’ve had a genocidal slave owner on one of the most commonly used denominations, telling CNBC: “People have been on the bills for a long period of time. And this is something we will consider.” It’s not an outright reversal yet, but it’s certainly reminiscent of the last time a woman lost out to some racist.