Merkley Leads Colleagues in Slamming Trump Putting His Face on U.S. Passport

Washington, D.C. - Today, Oregon's U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley led U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Tim Kaine (D-VA), and Angus King (I-ME) to demand answers from the U.S. Department of State about its reported plans to issue 25,000 special passports featuring Trump's portrait in commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the United States.

"We write to express our deep concern regarding the State Department's reported plans to issue a limited number of specially designed U.S. passports featuring a picture of President Trump to commemorate the 250th anniversary of our nation's founding. The U.S. passport has never-and should not now-feature an image of a sitting U.S. president. We ask you to halt these plans given the anti-democratic impact this decision will have," the Senators wrote in a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The Senators also emphasized how unprecedented it would be to put a political figure's face on the U.S. passport and the potential to waste Americans' taxpayer dollars in the process.

"To our knowledge, no country places the portrait of a sitting leader in its passport," they stressed. "Even the most authoritarian and autocratic governments have avoided equating national identity to the sitting president in such a way."

Previously, Merkley has sounded the alarm over Trump's self-celebrating actions-from putting his face on U.S. currency to park passes. He has also been a long-time leader in the push to end corruption by elected officials, championing legislation to rein in prediction markets, prohibit lawmakers from trading stocks, and ban cryptocurrency-related corruption by elected officials at the highest levels of the federal government.

Full text of the letter can be found by clicking here and follows below:

Dear Secretary Rubio:

We write to express our deep concern regarding the State Department's reported plans to issue a limited number of specially designed U.S. passports featuring a picture of President Trump to commemorate the 250^th anniversary of our nation's founding. The U.S. passport has never-and should not now-feature an image of a sitting U.S. president. We ask you to halt these plans given the anti-democratic impact this decision will have.

Using our nation's semiquincentennial to elevate the profile of the current president risks turning a unifying national milestone into a vehicle for personal promotion. The U.S. passport is the country's primary form of national identification, used daily by Americans of every political, cultural, and religious background. Its imagery has long reflected our shared national heritage through depictions of iconic landscapes and historic moments, not current political figures.

There is precedent for issuing commemorative passports to mark significant anniversaries. For example, the State Department issued a passport featuring the Liberty Bell for the bicentennial, and in 1993, released a special green passport honoring Benjamin Franklin and 200 years of U.S. consular service. These designs celebrated our shared national history rather than the image of a sitting head of state.

To our knowledge, no country places the portrait of a sitting leader in its passport. Even the most authoritarian and autocratic governments have avoided equating national identity to the sitting president in such a way.

The decision to produce a small run of reportedly only 25,000 passports featuring the president's image raises several questions:

1. What is the production cost associated with redesigning and printing the 250^th anniversary commemorative passport?
2. Were alternative design options considered? If so, how was this option selected?
3. Reports indicate these passports will only be available at the Washington Passport Agency. What will the process be for obtaining one? Will applicants be able to opt-out of receiving this design?

We urge you to reconsider this plan. Proceeding would risk politicizing a document that is central to our national identity and could result in unnecessary and wasteful costs to the American taxpayer.

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