To celebrate America’s 250th birthday, President Donald Trump is commemorating the most important person in the country’s history: himself.

Back in 2021—days after the January 6 riots—Trump signed an act to authorize the creation of new coins to celebrate the country’s 250th anniversary. The act specified that one coin be focused on women’s contribution to U.S. history.

In response, a bipartisan committee came up with some recommendations: a coin featuring Frederick Douglass to represent abolition, one with a “Votes for Women” flag to honor women’s suffrage, and a coin featuring 6-year-old Ruby Bridges, who helped desegregate her school in 1960.

But Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who has ultimate say, did not follow these recommendations, reported The New York Times.

Instead, the new coins will feature a Pilgrim couple on the Mayflower, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Abraham Lincoln. (The Trump administration, apparently, was not satisfied with the already significant coin representation of three out of four of these historic American men.)

And then, the collection’s pièce de résistance: a Trump dollar coin, featuring the president’s likeness on both sides.

It’s worth pointing out that it is incredibly abnormal—and some would argue, anti-American—to have a sitting president on a coin. Washington refused to have his likeness on a coin while he was president, as it felt too king-like for the leader of the newly free United States, according to the Times. Trump, apparently, has no such qualms.

After a deadly shooting at Brown University which left two people dead and injured nine others, people across the country struggled Sunday to make sense of the event and the needless loss of life.

But while Americans tend to agree that mass shootings such as this one are a tragedy, much of the GOP, predictably, continues to engage in magical thinking—by pretending gun violence is not at all connected to being able to easily procure guns.

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy pointed out during an interview on CNN on Sunday that the president himself was making the problem much, much worse.  

“Over the last year, President Trump has been engaged in a dizzying campaign to increase violence in this country,” Murphy said. “He is restoring gun rights to felons and people who have lost their ability to buy guns, he eliminated the White House office of gun violence protection, and he has stopped funding mental health grants and community anti–gun violence grants that Republicans and Democrats supported... He’s been engaged in a pretty deliberate campaign to try to make violence more likely in this country, and I think you’re unfortunately going to see the results of that on the streets of America.”

“That’s a pretty big statement. He’s in a campaign to make violence more likely?” the CNN anchor said.

“Of course,” Murphy said. Later, he continued: “The evidence tells you that when you stop funding mental health, you stop funding community anti–gun violence programs, when you give gun rights back to dangerous people, you’re going to have an increase in violence, that is knowable and that is foreseeable.”

Chris Murphy: "This is not shocking, because over the last year, President Trump has been engaged in a dizzying campaign to increase violence in this country. He is restoring gun rights to felons, eliminated the WH office of gun violence prevention, & he's stopped funding mental… pic.twitter.com/OQ9QYyVxHw

While authorities have reported that a person of interest in the shooting has been detained, details about the deadly attack at Brown University are still emerging. President Trump, for his part, weighed in on the situation Saturday night, saying, “All we can do right now is pray.” 

President Donald Trump spread unconfirmed information about an active shooter at Brown University,  potentially putting students’ lives in danger as they sheltered in place during the event. 

On Saturday evening at around 4 p.m., a man entered a classroom with about 60 students and started shooting. The students were in a final exam review session for their Economics class. Two people were killed in the attack, and nine were injured. 

 On Saturday night, as students barricaded themselves inside dorms and libraries, Trump posted on Truth Social that “the suspect is in custody.”

😬 pic.twitter.com/hmH6SVbNbS

But this was not confirmed. 

At 5:53 p.m., according to the Brown Daily Herald, Brown’s student newspaper, the department of public safety sent out an alert saying that the “situation remains ongoing.” 

Trump posted at 5:44 p.m., writing that he had been “briefed” on the shooting and that a suspect was in........

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