PRESIDENT TRUMP, who as a candidate in 2016 derided as “pure political correctness” the plan to honor Harriet Tubman by featuring the Underground Railroad’s most celebrated conductor’s image on the front of the $20 bill, can rest easy: Thanks to the intervention of his treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, only likenesses of white men will appear on U.S. paper money for the duration of his presidency.
Mr. Mnuchin’s far-fetched pretext for the delay — that eight more years of technical planning were required to prevent counterfeiting issues in the bill’s new design — is now exposed as risible. As the New York Times reported, the design of the new bill, featuring Tubman, was already quite advanced when Mr. Mnuchin announced the move, apparently fearing an even greater backlash should Mr. Trump cancel the project outright. The treasury secretary’s postponement means the new note will not be complete until after Mr. Trump leaves office, even if he serves a second term.
The Trump administration’s stock in trade is divisiveness, particularly where it concerns race and ethnicity. As usual, though, Mr. Trump underestimates the American people: Many Americans of every race despaired that the plan to honor Tubman was derailed, and that includes some Republicans. Among them is Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland (where Tubman was born), who wrote to Mr. Mnuchin expressing his disappointment. The famed abolitionist, Mr. Hogan wrote, “more than earned her rightful place among our nation’s most pivotal leaders.”
View the complete July 18 commentary by The Washington Post Editorial Board here.