Trump Finds a New Way to Force Us to Stare at His Face

Source: The New Republic · Bias: Left

Summary

Say what you will about our grifter in chief, but during his second term, Donald Trump has managed to slap his name and likeness on more objects than anyone could have imagined.The newest entry in the crowded field of Trumpjunk, reports The Washington Post, is a commemorative gold coin, approved on Thursday by the Commission of Fine Arts. The coin features an unusually svelte Trump bending over to press his fists down onto a flat surface—presumably a desk, but with some imagination, one could also see it as a railing overhanging a steep cliff face, or a pommel horse that Trump is preparing to vault.It should be unsurprising to hear that the Commission of Fine Arts, one of the few federal arts commissions Elon Musk didn’t take the time to gut, is entirely filled with Trump appointees. These include Roger Kimball, whose “commentary” on Trump has for years been impressively servile, as well as one of Trump’s former assistants, a 26-year-old named Chamberlain Harris judged by the Post to have “no notable arts expertise.”But it was another commission member, James McCrery II, who earned the title of Biggest Trump Bootlicker by reportedly spearheading the effort to approve the coin. McCrery told his fellow coin-heads that Treasury officials should print the coin “as large as possible, all the way to three inches in diameter.”Thankfully, the American people may be spared from having a physical Trump coin in their lives, as the bipartisan Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee, or CCAC, also needs to sign off on the design before it can go to the U.S. Mint—and that committee rejected the coin last month. While Trump could theoretically try to produce the coin anyway, he “would probably face legal challenges,” according to the Post.Retired basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who served on the CCAC a decade ago, told the Post he was “not enthusiastic about memorializing Mr. Trump on a coin because he has done so much damage to our country.” Michael Moran, a Republican first nominated to the CCAC in 2011 and reappointed by Senator Mitch McConnell in 2025, similarly denounced the coin. “It goes against American culture and the traditions that drive what we put on our coinage,” Moran said. “I didn’t sign up for this.”Join the club, Mike!

Related Coverage

Daily Analysis

Read the full Parallax Pulse for March 20, 2026 — an AI-powered analysis of how Left and Right media covered the biggest stories this day.

More Headlines From March 20, 2026

arallaxNews.io
Trump Finds a New Way to Force Us to Stare at His Face
The New Republic

Trump Finds a New Way to Force Us to Stare at His Face

Left

Say what you will about our grifter in chief, but during his second term, Donald Trump has managed to slap his name and likeness on more objects than anyone could have imagined.The newest entry in the crowded field of Trumpjunk, reports The Washington Post, is a commemorative gold coin, approved on Thursday by the Commission of Fine Arts. The coin features an unusually svelte Trump bending over to press his fists down onto a flat surface—presumably a desk, but with some imagination, one could also see it as a railing overhanging a steep cliff face, or a pommel horse that Trump is preparing to vault.It should be unsurprising to hear that the Commission of Fine Arts, one of the few federal arts commissions Elon Musk didn’t take the time to gut, is entirely filled with Trump appointees. These include Roger Kimball, whose “commentary” on Trump has for years been impressively servile, as well as one of Trump’s former assistants, a 26-year-old named Chamberlain Harris judged by the Post to have “no notable arts expertise.”But it was another commission member, James McCrery II, who earned the title of Biggest Trump Bootlicker by reportedly spearheading the effort to approve the coin. McCrery told his fellow coin-heads that Treasury officials should print the coin “as large as possible, all the way to three inches in diameter.”Thankfully, the American people may be spared from having a physical Trump coin in their lives, as the bipartisan Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee, or CCAC, also needs to sign off on the design before it can go to the U.S. Mint—and that committee rejected the coin last month. While Trump could theoretically try to produce the coin anyway, he “would probably face legal challenges,” according to the Post.Retired basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who served on the CCAC a decade ago, told the Post he was “not enthusiastic about memorializing Mr. Trump on a coin because he has done so much damage to our country.” Michael Moran, a Republican first nominated to the CCAC in 2011 and reappointed by Senator Mitch McConnell in 2025, similarly denounced the coin. “It goes against American culture and the traditions that drive what we put on our coinage,” Moran said. “I didn’t sign up for this.”Join the club, Mike!

Read Full Story at Source
Trump Finds a New Way to Force Us to Stare at His Face | ParallaxNews.io