Harriet Tubman won't appear on the $20 until at least 2028, says Mnuchin

The Trump administration hits a new low in petty.
 By 
Marcus Gilmer
 on 
Harriet Tubman won't appear on the $20 until at least 2028, says Mnuchin
Of course Trump will find a way to block American hero Harriet Tubman from appearing on the $20 bill. Credit: MASHABLE COMPOSITE: CHIP SOMODEVILLA / GETTY;UNIVERSAL HISTORY ARCHIVE / GETTY

The new and long-awaited $20 bill design featuring Harriet Tubman won't be rolling out until at least 2028, according to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

The news dropped during a hearing on Wednesday in front of the House Financial Services Committee, Mnuchin telling Rep. Ayanna Pressley that the new $20 bill probably won't hit the streets for almost a decade.

Making matters worse, Mnuchin refused to give Pressley a direct answer as to why, exactly, the new design is delayed, even though new "security feature" (i.e., counterfeit prevention feature) will be ready to go in 2020 as planned.

The (correct and good) decision to put Tubman on the $20 was announced back in April 2016 by then-Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, alongside plans to include other historic women on redesigns on the backs of the $10 and $5 bills. These new bills were to debut in 2020 to mark the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.

Mnuchin's refusal to answer, while infuriating, isn't surprising, sadly. Immediately after Lew's 2016 announcement, then-candidate Trump called the decision "pure political correctness" and suggested shifting Tubman to the little used $2 bill. Mnuchin followed that in 2017 with words that were as equally vague as Wednesday's statement.

Pressley was not at all impressed with Mnuchin's non-answer.

Neither were many supporters of the Tubman $20 bill, many of who couldn't help but point out the problematic contradictions in what Trump supports instead of Tubman on a piece of paper, like his ongoing support of Confederate General and traitor to his country, Robert E. Lee.

In more positive news, a new mural of Tubman was recently unveiled at the Harriet Tubman Museum & Educational Center in Cambridge, Maryland and led to this stunning photo of a young girl reaching out to touch Tubman's open hand.

Whatever the Trump administration decides to do with the Tubman $20, that mural photo and Tubman's contributions to America will remain priceless.

Mashable Image
Marcus Gilmer

Marcus Gilmer is Mashable's Assistant Real-Times News Editor on the West Coast, reporting on breaking news from his location in San Francisco. An Alabama native, Marcus earned his BA from Birmingham-Southern College and his MFA in Communications from the University of New Orleans. Marcus has previously worked for Chicagoist, The A.V. Club, the Chicago Sun-Times and the San Francisco Chronicle.

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