Donald Trump has ordered the Treasury to stop ‘producing new pennies’ as part of his latest measures to cut down on public spending.
The president took to Truth Social moments after he attended the first half of the Super Bowl to announce the measure.
‘For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents,’ he wrote.
‘This is so wasteful! I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies.Â
‘Let’s rip the waste out of our great nations budget, even if it’s a penny at a time.’
The US produces new pennies designed for circulation at its mints located in Denver and Philadelphia.
According to a 2024 report from the US Mint, it cost 3.69 cents to produce a penny, a process which lost the Treasury $179 million in 2023.
A nickel meanwhile cost around 13.78 cents to manufacture last year. The increased production cost is partly due to the price of raw materials.Â
Donald Trump has ordered the Treasury to stop ‘producing new pennies’ as part of his latest measures to cut down on public spending
The US Mint said it was the 19th year in a row production costs had been above face value.
Trump’s announcement is the latest plan designed to trim the fat on federal spending.
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), spearheaded by Elon Musk, has already unveiled a raft of measures including axing entirely funding for USAID, America’s foreign aid agency.
DOGE also claims it has saved $1 billion by slashing funding for DEI programs after Trump signed an executive order pulling federal funding for such initiatives.
In a November opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal, Musk and then co-partner Vivek Ramaswamy announced ambitious plans to cut around $500 billion in federal government spending, equivalent to around seven percent of the total budget.Â
However the agency’s approach has come under scrutiny and is the subject of several lawsuits after it emerged that DOGE had gained access to federal disbursement systems.
According to a 2024 report from the US Mint, it cost 3.69 cents to produce each penny
A New York judge temporarily halted DOGE from accessing the US Treasury’s payment system.
District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer of the Southern District of New York granted a restraining order against the US Treasury Department and Trump on Saturday after 19 states, including New York, who filed the request, demanded it.
The emergency restraining order commanded the immediate halt of giving access to Treasury information outside of those employed with the department.
This includes ‘all political appointees, special government employees, and government employees detailed from an agency outside the Treasury Department payment record, payment systems, or any other data systems maintained by the Treasury Department.’
It also ordered for any Treasury information obtained by those outside the department since January 20 – Inauguration Day – to be ‘immediately’ destroyed, which would include Musk’s DOGE workers.
Trump said he will instruct the head of DOGE to examine the Education Department for potential cuts next.
‘I ran on this, and the people want me to find this,’ Trump told Fox News host Bret Baier in a pre-taped interview before the Super Bowl.
He became the first ever president to attend the sporting event which saw the Philadelphia Eagles clinch a win over the Kansas City Chiefs 40-22.