He told the Treasury Department to halt production because it costs more than two cents to make each one. In a post on his Truth Social, he said, “We’ve been minting pennies for too long, and it’s just wasteful! I’ve told my Treasury Secretary to put a stop to it.”
The Trump 2.0 team is all about cutting costs, even going after entire agencies and laying off a bunch of federal workers. Trump added, “Let’s cut the waste from our budget, even if it’s just a penny at a time.”
He shared this news after catching part of the Super Bowl in New Orleans.
On his way to the game, Trump mentioned that Elon Musk’s government efficiency team (DOGE) found some issues while looking into the Treasury Department’s data, hinting that it might have led to some missed payments. He said, “There could be a problem with Treasuries,” but it wasn’t clear if he meant government debt or other payments.
He speculated, “That could be interesting because maybe we have less debt than we thought.” Musk’s DOGE has been trying to get access to Treasury payment data, but Musk’s social media chatter has mostly focused on payments to contractors, not bondholders.
A Trump official said that DOGE’s review of the Treasury’s payment systems could help lower future deficits and debt. However, a federal judge has temporarily blocked the efficiency team’s access to Treasury info and ordered them to destroy any data they’ve already collected due to a lawsuit from some states.
Last week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent mentioned that the yield on 10-year government debt is a key measure for Trump’s goal of lowering interest rates.
