British Painter Behind Proposed $250 Bill Says He Discussed Design With Trump
By Harrison Jacobs
Iain Alexander, a British painter who has exhibited in Palm Beach, Florida, designed a proposed $250 bill recently sent by the Trump Administration to the Treasury Department.
In an interview with the Washington Post, Alexander said that Trump had reviewed his design and gave the okay for adding the colors of the US flag and a logo commemorating the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding, which is being celebrated this year. “He likes to call me his favorite British artist,” Alexander said of Trump.
The Trump administration has been pursuing a 250 dollar bill featuring the real estate mogul-turned-president since last year, despite the fact that US law prohibits living figures from appearing on US bills. According to the Post, US treasurer Brandon Beach and senior advisor Mike Brown pushed staff at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to create prototypes of the 250 dollar bill, including one featuring Trump’s face designed by Alexander. Alexander’s signature appears below the mock-up, per the Post.
Alexander said that he had proposed featuring Betsy Ross, who famously sewed American flags during the Revolution, for the back of the $250 note, which he said Trump “absolutely loved.”
Alexander did not say how he got in contact with the Trump administration, though his Instagram features several photographs with the president, as well as promotion for a 2025 exhibition at Appreciation Gallery in Palm Beach, Florida, not far from Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s usual Florida haunt. Alexander advertises himself as an “international royalty portrait artist” and a sculptor, though it is not clear which royals, if any, have sat for a portrait by him.
Representative Joe Wilson of South Carolina introduced a bill last year to mandate the Treasury to print $250 notes featuring Trump. The bill was referred to the House Committee on Financial Services in December but has not moved forward from there.
A Treasury Department spokesperson told the Post that the mockup was part of “appropriate planning and due diligence” in response to Wilson’s proposed legislation. “Should this legislative mandate be signed into law, the BEP is moving proactively to produce a $250 commemorative note which will appropriately recognize the 250th Anniversary of our great nation,” the statement said.
Officials in the Bureau of Engraving and Printing have pushed back against printing the bills, according to the Post, leading to at least one being abruptly reassigned. The Bureau is in the process of printing $100 bills featuring Trump’s signature, which will be the first bills to bear a sitting president’s signature.
This article was originally published by ARTnews.