On April 28, 2026, the State Department announced a limited-edition U.S. passport featuring President Donald Trump's portrait and signature in gold on the inside cover, to commemorate America's 250th anniversary. Trump becomes the first living president ever to be featured on an American passport.
Mock-ups show Trump's face surrounded by text from the Declaration of Independence and the American flag, with his gold-foil signature beneath. Between 25,000 and 30,000 of the commemorative passports will be issued — available only to applicants in person at the Washington, D.C., passport agency starting shortly before July 4, 2026. Applicants can choose between the standard passport and the Trump version. The State Department has not disclosed the additional cost or the production budget.
The rollout follows a months-long pattern of the 250th-anniversary marketing being repurposed to feature Trump personally — including the America250 commission's hiring of Trump campaign aides, the planned $200-million White House ballroom announced as a 250th gift, and a $200-million 'America's Founding' film project Trump's allies are producing. Critics, including former State Department officials, said placing the sitting president's face on a federal travel document is a break with every modern norm: U.S. passports historically feature American symbols (the bald eagle, the Statue of Liberty, the Capitol), American landscapes, and quotations from founding documents — never a living political figure. The Bulwark's reporting framed it as 'cult-of-personality iconography on a federal ID.'