OAN Staff Blake Wolf
11:43 AM – Monday, February 10, 2025
President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that the U.S. Treasury must halt producing pennies, as the production of pennies actually costs more to make them than it’s worth.
Advertisement
“For far too long, the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “This is so wasteful! I have instructed my Secretary of the U.S. 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 added.
Trump’s announcement follows after the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, revealed that the government is operating on a loss to produce pennies.
“The penny costs over 3 cents to make and cost U.S. taxpayers over $179 million in FY2023. The Mint produced over 4.5 billion pennies in FY2023, around 40% of the 11.4 billion coins for circulation produced,” DOGE wrote in an X post last month.
The United States Mint is the wing of the U.S. Department of Treasury tasked with producing the coinage. The bureau reported a loss of $85.3 million on the nearly 3.2 billion pennies lost in the 2024 fiscal year.
The price to produce a single penny costs $0.037, which nearly triples the value of the penny itself.
Trump’s policy of ending the production of pennies is popular among the American people as a 2022 poll revealed that 58% of American voters support the initiative.
The latest measure to cut federal waste is a continuation in DOGE’s effort to eliminate unnecessary costs, as the agency floats the idea of auditing the Pentagon and the Federal Reserve.
Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts
Advertisements below