President Donald Trump has ordered the U.S. Treasury to cease the production of new pennies, calling the practice an unnecessary drain on taxpayer dollars.
The announcement came shortly after Trump left the Super Bowl, departing about 10 minutes into the second half to return to Washington, D.C.
During rapper Kendrick Lamar’s halftime performance, Trump was seen standing in his private box alongside his daughter, Ivanka Trump, according to The Hill.
As he traveled back to the nation’s capital, Trump took to Truth Social, declaring, “For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents. This is so wasteful! I have instructed my Secretary of the U.S. Treasury to stop producing new pennies. Let’s rip the waste out of our great nation’s budget, even if it’s a penny at a time.”
The statistics support Trump’s decisive action.
In fiscal year 2023, the United States Mint spent approximately $179 million on the production of pennies and nickels combined.
Astonishingly, each penny cost about 3.07 cents to manufacture, while nickels came in at a whopping 11.54 cents apiece—far exceeding their face value, according to Coin News.
The penny costs over 3 cents to make and cost US taxpayers over $179 million in FY2023.
The Mint produced over 4.5 billion pennies in FY2023, around 40% of the 11.4 billion coins for circulation produced.
Penny (or 3 cents!) for your thoughts.
Sources:https://t.co/Y5LlrpyA62…
— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) January 22, 2025
According to the 2024 annual report, “The penny’s unit cost increased 20.2 percent, the nickel’s unit cost increased by 19.4 percent, the dime’s unit cost increased by 8.7 percent, and the quarter-dollar’s unit cost increased by 26.2 percent. The unit cost for pennies (3.69 cents) and nickels (13.78 cents) remained above face value for the 19th consecutive fiscal year.”
This means taxpayers have been footing the bill for a coin that’s worth less than its production cost.
The post President Trump Orders Treasury to Stop the Production of New Pennies appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.