Meanwhile, in North Korea…
Trump to sign US currency.
Via NBC News: Trump’s signature to appear on paper currency in a first for a sitting president.
Trump’s signature will go on the bills in honor of the country’s 250th anniversary, the Treasury said. Historically, paper currency carries the signatures of the treasury secretary and the treasurer.
[…]
U.S. paper currency has featured the treasurer’s along with the treasury secretary’s or the register of the treasurer’s signatures since it was first printed in 1861.
The above is problematic for at least two reasons. First is the general personalization of a basic government function to the president. Second is the association of the sitting president with a national celebration.
I would note that having the Treasury Secretary sign the currency is a simple reflection of a bureaucratic process properly linked to the function of the office. Having the president sign the currency is him identifying personally with a function of government that otherwise does not require his participation.
It is all part of Trump’s egomania in putting his name on anything and everything he can. If we saw this in another country, we would easily see it for what it is. Heck, if we saw it in a movie, we might well think that the script is going overboard in beating us over the head as to how self-centered the president character was.
And if the above isn’t bad enough, the obsequious praise that Bessent feels the need to laud on Trump is nauseating.
“The President’s mark on history as the architect of America’s Golden Age economic revival is undeniable,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. “Printing his signature on the American currency is not only appropriate, but also well deserved.”
So the difference between engraving a printing plate with a signature and the autopen is…
[audible eye roll]
Bessent has a reported net worth of half a billion dollars. That’s whats so crazy about this scene around Trump! — all these mega-million mega-billionaires’ fawning supplication to Trump’s ego and power! Certainly Bessent or Lutnick or Bezos or Musk et. al, didn’t make their fortunes by grovelling their way to a billion dollars. These guys had to have a fair measure of sterner stuff, and big egos themselves. Wiki does note that Scott Bessent had a summer job as a “busboy” as a kid, so there’s some early training in a servile skill set. But all this cringeworthy supplication may come down to unresolved “daddy issues.” These guys get some form of self validation from sucking up to Trump. And THAT is deeply disturbing — so much money, so much power, and so much inner conflict.
True, if you change “Golden” to “Gilded”.
@gVOR10:
Or perhaps even, Gelded Age.
And by golden age he means Americans being pissed on.
@Rob1:
+1 – I was thinking similarly and you’ve written it up nicely.
This is why I find the oligarchy we are in today so dangerous. It is not enough that these people more money than they can possibly spend or enough power to ensure they always have more money than they can possibly spend. No, the oligarchs also have some hole inside them that tells them they also have to be loved and admired for having it all. Bessent supplicates himself to Trump because Trump will love him for it (as Trump both loves and hates his supplicants).
Made up awards, immense signs with his face, signing currency.
Remember how we used to make fun of Kim Jong-il for this stuff? Good times.
Edit: just noticed the post title and now my comment is lame.
@Rob1: I thought the point of having a lot of money was being able to tell people to fuck off, and/or just fuck off yourself and not have to deal with that shit.
Being able to choose your own shoes, or delegating your shoe choices to someone who will make sure they fit, for instance.
So, I assume they must all have a humiliation kink. If you have the money to do anything, and you are routinely being humiliated, you’re making a choice to be humiliated.
Pretty sure a government by humiliation kink is not the best form of government.