Trump Wants His Face On A $250 Bill: What Do Prediction Markets Say?

President Donald Trump‘s appointees have spent months pushing the Treasury to put his face on a new $250 bill, even though federal law bars living people from US currency.

Treasury officials sent the Bureau of Engraving and Printing a mock-up last August showing Trump’s face in the center next to the words “250 AMERICA,” the Washington Post reported Thursday.

The design includes the signatures of Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Trump reportedly asked for the colors of the American flag and a 250th-anniversary logo. The bureau usually keeps new designs secret to deter counterfeiters, but this one leaked.

Why The $250 Bill Is Illegal

Federal law has banned living people from US paper currency since 1866.

The rule grew out of a scandal at the government’s printing office, where superintendent Spencer Clark put his own face on a five-cent note.

When members of Congress noticed, they were furious and banned any living person from American money that year.

The ban still stands. Issuing the Trump note would require Congress to undo it.

A new high-value note would also run against the global trend.

The European Central Bank stopped issuing the €500 bill in 2019 over concerns it fueled money laundering and crime. In Spain, the note was nicknamed the “Bin Laden,” because everyone knew it existed but almost no one ever saw one.

The Director Who Pushed Back

Bureau director Patricia Solimene and her staff warned the appointees the note was not authorized and could take six to eight years to produce, according to the Post. The appointees dismissed the warnings.

Treasury reassigned Solimene, a 24-year Army veteran and the bureau’s first female director, on April 27. She told colleagues the move was “not my choice.”

Mike Brown, one of the officials who pushed the bill, replaced her.

Trump’s name will start appearing on $100 bills in June, replacing the Treasurer’s signature for the first time since 1861 and marking a first for a sitting president.

A signature, unlike a portrait, breaks no law.

What Prediction Markets Say

The $250 note cannot exist without an act of Congress, and the only vehicle is Rep. Joe Wilson‘s (R-S.C.) “Donald J. Trump $250 Bill Act.” He introduced it in February 2025, and it has sat in the House Financial Services Committee without a hearing since.

A Kalshi contract on if the bill becomes law was trading near 13% on Thursday on about $57,000 in volume.

Any new note would run on paper from Crane NXT (NYSE:CXT), the sole maker of US currency stock for more than a century.

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