In 2016 it was announced that anti-slavery activist Harriet Tubman would be the face of the new 20-dollar note. She would push the current face of Andrew Jackson to the back of the note. The announcement was made by then secretary Jack Lew who was the Treasury Secretary at the time under president Obama.
But then the
USA held elections, Obama left and Trump came into office and… the rest is a daily reminder of how quickly things can change for the worse and how fragile our democracies really are. So now the
USA is stuck with Secretary Mnuchin who runs the Treasury under the Trump regime. Originally the new 20-dollar note was expected for 2020 together with a new 5- and 10-dollar note.
But surprise, surprise: the 20-dollar note is postponed. Officially due to “counterfeiting issues” but the fact that Trumps hero Andrew Jackson would be pushed to the back of the note might have something to do with it. Also the fact that Tubman was black, a woman, fought white supremacy at the time and grew up in poverty doesn’t really tick the right boxes with the current president. So the new note has been
postponed to 2028.
But to be fair: I’m not very sad that this monumental new note will be postponed until after the moment Trump leaves (I hope) the White House. It would be a really weird scene if somebody like Trump or one his minions would present this banknote. Just imagine North Korea hosting the Nobel Peace Price ceremony: that level of weird. The note deserves better presenters, hopefully not long after 2020…
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