OAN Staff James Meyers
2:56 PM – Tuesday, February 11, 2025
“The View” host Joy Behar said on Tuesday’s show that 47th President Donald Trump’s call to dismantle the production of the penny was only because he was “jealous” of America’s 16th President, Abraham Lincoln, whose face appears on the coins.
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Behar and the other far-left co-hosts were discussing Trump’s plan to stop minting pennies, after he claimed it costs more to produce them than what they are actually worth. However, the ABC midday talk show said that he just did it to soothe his own ego.
“I mean it’s really — and he’s jealous of everybody. Now he’s getting rid of the penny, he’s even jealous of Lincoln,” Behar exclaimed. “He’s so small, so petty.”
“Small and petty, absolutely,” co-host Sunny Hostin agreed.
This comes after Trump said he instructed the Treasury Department to stop minting the copper coins due to their high costs.
“For far too long, the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday. “This is so wasteful! I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies.”
However, supporters of the penny claim that Trump should evaluate changes to the nickel instead, as the cost to mint them also exceeds their face value of five cents. Ultimately, this could become a problem if fewer pennies are available causing the demand for nickels to go up.
Nickels cost approximately 13.8 cents to mint, according to the 2024 U.S. Mint report.
“The logical and fiscally responsible solution is not to eliminate the penny but to focus on producing a cheaper nickel,” Americans for Common Cents Executive Director Mark Weller said in a Jan. 23 statement. “This approach would address the real driver of losses while preserving the functionality of small denominations in everyday transactions.”
Experts have said that Congress would likely need to get involved and pass legislation to fulfill Trump’s wishes.
“The process of discontinuing the penny in the U.S. is a little unclear. It would likely require an act of Congress, but the Secretary of the Treasury might be able to simply stop the minting of new pennies,” Robert Triest, an economics professor at Northeastern University, told the Northeastern Global News.
In 2023, Senators Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), and Maggie Hasson (D-N.H.), reintroduced a law to change the composition of the penny to reduce costs.
“It’s absolute non-cents that American taxpayers spend ten cents to make just one nickel. Only Washington could lose money making money,” Ernst said in a statement in April 2023. “This commonsense, bipartisan effort will modify the composition of certain coins to reduce costs while allowing for a seamless transition into circulation. A penny saved is a penny not borrowed.”
There is still optimism for change however, after Congress previously has acted to discontinue minting new coins. In 1857, the legislative branch authorized discontinuing new half-cent coins.
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