Asked by Spectrum News on Monday, July 6, 2026, whether the Treasury still planned to put Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, “We are not at present.” He gave no further explanation, ending a redesign that had been in the works for a decade.
The Tubman $20, which would have made the abolitionist and Underground Railroad conductor the first Black woman on U.S. paper currency, was announced in 2016 under President Obama and originally slated for 2020. Trump's first administration shelved it, citing anti-counterfeiting work and pushing it to 2026; the Biden administration tried to speed it back up. Now it is off the table entirely. During his 2016 campaign, Trump had derided the plan as “pure political correctness.”
The contrast is the point. As it drops the Tubman note, the administration is preparing a $250 bill featuring Trump's own portrait for the country's 250th anniversary. Asked why one is moving forward and the other is not, Bessent said the $250 bill requires an act of Congress because a living person cannot appear on U.S. currency, while changing an existing bill “takes many years.” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen called the reversal a step backward from honoring women's contributions to American history.