His Face on Gold, Their Bridges in Rubble: America Celebrates 250 Years of Freedom

There are weeks when a country summarizes its Constitution so perfectly that any commentary becomes unnecessary. This is one of them. On Wednesday morning, the Treasury Department unveiled a new one-dollar gold coin bearing the face of the sitting President. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declared that, as America celebrates 250 years of independence, the United States Mint would strike the coin to honor the enduring legacy of liberty and create a lasting symbol of patriotism. Featuring the President's likeness, the coin celebrates the strength of American values and the promise of a nation committed to preserving freedom for all.

For all. Remember those words. We are going to need them in a moment.

The only thing standing in the way of the coin is federal law, something that has increasingly been treated in Washington as a minor obstacle. Section 5112 of Title 31 of the United States Code states that no coin may bear the image of a living current or former President until at least two years after that President's death. The 2020 Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act further specifies that living individuals may not appear on the reverse side either. The administration sidesteps both provisions by arguing that the very same law authorizes the President to issue commemorative coins for the nation's 250th anniversary. Congress essentially asked only for patience. Patience, however, is apparently no longer among the American values being celebrated.

The former Republican congressman Thomas Massie summed up the situation more concisely than any editorial ever could. We have reached the end stage now, he wrote: first eliminate the penny, then phase out the nickel, and finally mint commemorative gold coins that almost nobody will ever be able to afford. He said he felt sorry for the people who would soon be tricked into buying worthless imitations by the usual scammers.

Erasmus of Rotterdam wrote half a millennium ago in The Education of a Christian Prince that a ruler is not recognized by the portraits he commissions of himself, but by the condition of the people he governs. Anyone seeking to preserve his legacy in metal has already abandoned it in his deeds. One might dismiss that thought as a product of another age, if it were not for the other story that emerged this week.

Donald Trump told Fox News that the United States would strike Iran's civilian infrastructure next week: "We're gonna knock out all their power plants, we're gonna knock out all their bridges, unless they get to the table and negotiate."

On Tuesday evening, the President said in a television interview, when asked whether the recent strikes against Iran would expand, that the United States would ultimately target energy infrastructure. This week, he said, things would become very tough. Next week would be the power plants, then the bridges. They would knock out every power plant and every bridge unless Tehran came to the negotiating table.

International law has a different name for that than negotiation strategy. Article 52 of the 1977 Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions protects civilian objects from attack and reprisals, including those indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, while Article 51 prohibits precisely the kind of indiscriminate attacks the President described. A nation that claims to be committed to preserving freedom for all is therefore announcing that it intends to cut electricity to more than 90 million people because their government refuses to negotiate.

Nothing about this is new, which does not make it any better. Trump has made similar threats before. He previously said he would take out the power plants that provide electricity and water, and that he would do things so devastating that the country would literally never be able to rebuild itself as a nation. After the bombing of a highway bridge near Tehran in April, he declared that much more was still to come. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had already told Iranian forces in March that they would be shown no mercy. And that same April, the President predicted the destruction of an entire civilization, saying it would die that very night and never be brought back.

And so the circle closes, fitting perfectly around the rim of a coin. On one side is the face of a man promising freedom for all. On the other is the promise to plunge an entire nation into darkness if it refuses to comply. Both appeared within twenty-four hours, both bear the same seal, and no one at the Treasury Department seems to notice the connection.

Perhaps the coin is not a violation of the law after all, but the most honest coin ever struck in American history. It shows exactly what this country stands for 250 years after its independence, and it is made of gold so that no one will overlook it. The only problem is that, as Massie correctly noted, almost no one will ever be able to afford it. The bridges, meanwhile, will be free for the Iranians.