Trump admin 'finalizing' plan to put his face on limited edition US passports: report

Editor's Note: This story and it's headline have been updated. A previous version did not specify that passports featuring President Donald Trump's face are limited edition version. AlterNet regrets the error.

President Donald Trump is about to put a giant self-portrait on every American’s passport, something that no president has ever done.

“The State Department is close to finalizing a radical redesign of the U.S. passport to include a picture of President Donald Trump, The Bulwark has learned from two sources with knowledge of the redesign, including one who shared images currently under consideration,” The Bulwark’s Benjamin Parker reported on Tuesday.

Parker added, “The redesign is ostensibly part of a larger celebration of the 250th anniversary of American independence. It comes as the Treasury Department prepares to produce coins featuring Trump’s image—both a controversial $1 coin in general circulation and an ‘as large as possible’ commemorative gold coin—and as the National Park Service emblazons Trump’s face on its park passes. Both of those redesigns were justified as being part of the 250th anniversary celebration.”

The illustrations, obtained by The Bulwark, show Trump scowling from his second inaugural portrait superimposed over the Declaration of Independence and including the president’s signature in gold.

“During his second term in office, Trump has taken aggressive steps to put his name and likeness on a host of government properties,” The Bulwark added. “His signature is set to appear on future U.S. currency, huge banners with his face have appeared on federal buildings, he has created a new website for prescription drugs called TrumpRx.gov, he has announced a new ‘Trump class’ of battleships, and his name has been placed on both the U.S. Institute of Peace and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, which is now slated to be closed for two years for renovation.”

Parker added, “Trump also introduced the ‘Trump Gold Card’ and ‘Trump Platinum Card’ for people willing to shell out $1 million and $5 million, respectively, to expedite the residency process (although Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick revealed last week that only one person so far has successfully purchased a card). And the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Trump signed into law last year, included the creation of a new type of custodial IRA account for children, dubbed ‘Trump Accounts.’”

In general, Trump has spent much of his second term indulging in vanity projects that bolster his personal brand rather than advancing the public interest through government policy.

“Trump has invoked the ballroom on about a third of the days this year, according to a Washington Post analysis of his public remarks and social media posts, a pace that rivals and even exceeds his mentions of some major policy priorities,” wrote The Washington Post’s Clara Ence Morse and Dan Diamond earlier this month. “He has mentioned the project on fewer days this year than topics such as tariffs and Iran but on about as many days as he has mentioned health insurance and ‘affordability.’”

Trump has promoted his proposed ballroom “significantly” more than his TrumpRx website which is intended to help Americans obtain cheaper prescription drugs.

“In April, for instance, the president has issued more posts about the ballroom on his Truth Social platform than about tariffs — Trump’s signature economic policy,” Morse and Diamond explained. “On Thursday, the president took to Truth Social to complain about the federal judge who ordered a stop to the project until Trump receives congressional authorization, complain again about the judge, complain about the plaintiff, and then complain about the judge one more time — yielding nearly 800 words of invective, all told. Then, within minutes, Trump shared all four posts again.”