Trump Make America Great Again Challenge Coin
Trump Leaves His Marking on a Presidential Keepsake
Under President Trump, in one case stately medallions have gotten glitzier, and at least ane featured a Trump holding. Ideals watchdogs are worried.
The presidential challenge coin produced for White House Communications Bureau members. Credit... Whitten Sabbatini for The New York Times
WASHINGTON — Since Bill Clinton occupied the White Business firm, the commemorative medallions known as challenge coins have been stately symbols of the presidency coveted by the military, law enforcement personnel and a small circle of collectors.
Then came Donald J. Trump.
His presidency has yielded more — and more elaborate — coins that are shinier, flashier and even bigger, setting off a boom for money manufacturers, counterfeiters and collectors, with one official Trump challenge coin recently fetching $1,000 on eBay.
Amidst those produced in recent months by members of a White House armed services unit is a coin featuring Mr. Trump's private Florida lodge, Mar-a-Lago, on the front end, and the presidential seal, the White House and Air Force One on the back. Another has Pope Francis on one side and the president's confront set confronting the White House on the other.
And Mr. Trump's aides accept commissioned multiple versions of an official claiming money , for which the president himself has reviewed several proposals, according to people familiar with the process.
One such design, which was approved by Mr. Trump and paid for by the Republican National Committee, is thicker, wider and more gold than those of preceding presidents, and bears his entrada slogan "Make America Bully Again," likewise as his proper name — emblazoned three times. Missing was a traditional staple of presidential claiming coins: the presidential seal with the national motto, E pluribus unum, or "Out of many, one."
The suspension from tradition comes against larger debates over Mr. Trump'due south fascination with the trappings of power, and his blurring of the lines between his presidency and both his entrada and business organisation operations.
And, though claiming coins seem relatively picayune, the shift has caused headaches for the Trump White House.
The official Challenge coin for the first lady, Melania Trump
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The official challenge money for Vice President Mike Pence
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Concerned nearly running afoul of rules barring government resources from being used for partisan political purposes, the White House Counsel'due south Office warned staff members not to brandish the Republican National Committee'southward challenge money, or any paraphernalia with Mr. Trump's campaign slogan , in government buildings.
Outside ethics watchdogs say the "Make America Cracking Again" coins shouldn't be distributed to armed forces personnel — a traditional apply of presidential challenge coins — since the military is supposed to be walled off from politics.
And those watchdogs warn that coins featuring Mr. Trump'south properties, such every bit Mar-a-Lago, should not exist produced using regime resource — including funds, work hours or even telephone calls and emails — since federal ethics laws prohibit the apply of public resource to promote private businesses.
The Mar-a-Lago coins are alike to "a metallic tourist brochure," said Norman L. Eisen, a former ethics lawyer in President Barack Obama's White House and the chairman of a watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
The Mar-a-Lago trip coin produced for White House Communications Agency members
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Lindsay Walters, a White House deputy press secretary, said those laws didn't apply to the Mar-a-Lago coins, because "no public funds were used" in their design or creation.
Instead, Ms. Walters said, individual personnel assigned to the White House Communications Agency, a military unit that provides technological support for the president and his staff, used their ain private funds to pay for the coins.
Just Karen Brazell, the chief of staff for the White House Military Office, which oversees the communications agency, declined to comment on whether other agency resources were used for the coins.
After The New York Times inquired about the coins, agency personnel abruptly canceled plans for a coin featuring the president's signature Trump Tower in Manhattan and his golf grade in Bedminster, N.J.
The coins, which are unremarkably slightly larger than a argent dollar, are intended to represent trips taken past the president and vice president, and are nerveless or traded by the staff members involved in facilitating those trips. Only "a express number" are purchased for each trip, Ms. Brazell said, and sold to her office's employees to benefit what she described as a "individual morale organization."
The Vatican trip coin produced for White House Communications Agency members
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The World Economic Forum trip coin produced for White House Communications Bureau Members
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Whatsoever profit beyond the design and production costs goes to that fund for squad-edifice activities like ceremonies and retirement gifts, Ms. Walters said, stressing that neither Mr. Trump nor his staff "had whatever interest in the creation, design, distribution or funding" of the agency's coins.
She acknowledged, though, that the president "is involved in the pick and design of his official presidential challenge coins," which have been funded partly by the Republican National Commission.
People who have traveled with Mr. Trump say he has become enthralled by challenge coins, attributing his involvement to his appreciation for armed services traditions and might, also every bit his attraction to gaudy displays of golden excess. That fascination grew during the presidential campaign, when he would receive coins from law enforcement and military personnel whom he encountered at stops.
It wasn't long before coins bearing the campaign logo and slogan began circulating among his entrada team. Traveling aides normally kept a supply on hand to distribute to dignitaries and military and law enforcement personnel. Even the campaign's private security detail, made up of onetime F.B.I. agents and New York City police officers, jumped in on the act. The group — which was accused of using heavy-handed tactics — produced a coin featuring the phrase "Accept Gun, Will Travel."
After Mr. Trump was sworn in, he had a sampling of his challenge coin collection displayed on a credenza backside his desk in the Oval Office, where information technology is visible in photographs alongside a Frederic Remington sculpture of a cowboy riding a rearing bronco.
The challenge money for the Trump Campaign's private security detail
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The numismatic side of Mr. Trump's presidency elicited unwanted headlines after images of ii coins — the Republican National Committee'due south "Make America Bang-up Once again" coin, and one issued ahead of Mr. Trump's coming together with the Due north Korean leader, Kim Jong-un — were published.
"Replacing the nation'south motto with his campaign slogan is kind of tacky," the comedian Stephen Colbert said, riffing on the Republican National Committee coin on his CBS tardily-night testify. Only he quipped, "Information technology beat the first choice — 'good for one free drink.'"
The Democratic people's republic of korea coin, ordered by White House Communications Agency personnel, drew umbrage across the political spectrum for a dissimilar reason. Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, urged the administration to remove Mr. Kim's likeness. "He is a roughshod dictator and something like the Peace House would exist much more than appropriate," Mr. Schumer wrote on Twitter, referring to the site used for negotiations betwixt North and Republic of korea, in the Demilitarized Zone separating the two nations.
Only the coin incited a surge of interest in challenge coins like nothing that collectors could recall, spawning a host of knockoffs and creating an opportunity for a private company based in central Pennsylvania, the White House Souvenir Store.
The shop, which was one time affiliated with the federal government, quickly ordered near 100,000 copies of a version of the coin from the visitor that had designed and produced the original, Challenge Design.
Consumers seeking to purchase the coins crashed the White House Gift Store'due south website and jammed its telephone lines. The money, which differs essentially from the original, is listed for $49 on the company's website.
The North Korea coin produced for White House Communications Agency members
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The Democratic people's republic of korea summit Coming together coin produced for the white business firm gift shop
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The White House Souvenir Shop plans to sell two additional North Korea coins in what it bills every bit a "celebrated art money series." The second coin will accept a side showing Mr. Trump flanked past Mr. Kim and President Moon Jae-in of S Korea in front of their nations' flags with a dove holding an olive branch in its beak. The reverse side is essentially a paean to the Singapore summit meeting, depicting the resort at which it was held and a imprint that lists the date and the words "Diplomatic History."
The tertiary coin will seek to capture the outcome of the talks, perchance including the Nobel Prize, should Mr. Trump or Mr. Kim win it, said Mary H. Harms, the owner and artistic managing director of Challenge Design.
"What we try to do with our coins is tell stories," said Ms. Harms, whose company also makes coins for an assortment of armed services units, besides every bit individual sector clients like musicians.
Those worlds sometimes collide, as with a coin she produced for the band 3 Doors Down, which commemorated its operation during Mr. Trump's countdown festivities. It featured the band'south logo and the American flag on one side, and the seals of the president and vice president confronting the Lincoln Memorial on the other.
the inauguration performance coin produced for three doors downwardly
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In some means, the proliferation of splashy presidential coins under Mr. Trump is emblematic of his convention-defying presidency, said John Wertman, a former Clinton White Firm adjutant who is a leading expert on challenge coins.
His collection includes the official presidential claiming coins of Mr. Clinton and Mr. Obama, muted bronze affairs that take the presidential seal on i side and the White House and the president's signature on the other. (The two coins made for Vice President Mike Pence by the Republican National Committee are equally understated, and the one for the starting time lady, Melania Trump, while golden, is much less ornate than her husband's.)
Mr. Wertman was one of the few to receive a copy of Mr. Trump's "Make America Peachy Again" Republican National Committee money, which was largely removed from circulation later the round of mocking by the media. He said he was surprised by its thickness and lack of the presidential seal, but non necessarily its hue.
"If you look at what he did with the blueprint of the White Firm drapes and his general inclination toward gold, that's his personal preference," Mr. Wertman said of Mr. Trump.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/24/us/politics/trump-challenge-coins.html
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