First Trump Scrapped “DEI” Coins. Now the New Dime Is Losing the Olive Branch.

The Trump administration's Treasury Department removed the olive branch from the new commemorative dime design as part of the US Mint's semiquincentennial line celebrating America's 250th birthday. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent rejected several coin designs developed under the Biden administration, including commemorative coins featuring Frederick Douglass, women's suffrage, and school desegregation, with US Treasurer Brandon Beach calling those designs part of Biden's "DEI and Critical Race Theory policies." The olive branch has traditionally symbolized peace on US currency since President Truman officially declared in 1945 that the eagle's head should face toward it on the Great Seal. Critics argue the omission sends a cultural signal about America's current militaristic stance, with University of Houston historian Frank Holt saying the controversy "condemns the whole design." Two Democratic senators have introduced the "Change Corruption Act" to block any living president from appearing on US currency after the US Mint proposed featuring Trump's face on a semiquincentennial $1 coin.