Trump Directs Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to ‘Stop Producing New Pennies’

President Donald Trump announced he had instructed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to have the Treasury Department stop making new pennies, explaining that it costs more than two cents to make them.

“For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “This is so wasteful! I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies. Let’s rip the waste out of our great nations budget, even if it’s a penny at a time.”

Trump’s post comes after Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) wrote in a post on X in January that the penny costs more than three cents to make and cost American taxpayers “over $179 million in FY2023.”

“The penny costs over 3 cents to make and cost US taxpayers over $179 million in FY2023,” DOGE wrote. “The Mint produced over 4.5 billion pennies in FY2023, around 40% of the 11.4 billion coins for circulation produced.”

CBS News reported that the cost of making the penny has been “an issue that has sparked debate for years”:

In pointing out the penny’s costliness, DOGE is taking aim at an issue that has sparked debate for years, although the price of manufacturing the cent has only grown over the past several years. In 2016, for instance, the U.S. was spending about 1.5 cents to mint each penny, or less than half of its current manufacturing cost.

A 2024 report from the United States Mint revealed that it costs roughly “3.7 cents to manufacture and distribute” pennies, according to the outlet.

CBS News reported:

Pennies are mostly made of zinc, with a copper overlay to give them their distinctive color. While zinc’s price fluctuates from year to year, its cost per metric ton is now double what it was in 2016, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

In November 2024, after winning the presidential election, Trump announced that he had selected Musk to lead DOGE in an effort for the Trump administration to “slash excess regulations” and to “cut wasteful expenditures” in the government. Trump also noted that DOGE would help to “drive out the massive waste and fraud” within the government.