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Harriet Tubman might not replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill after all

Trump has a thing for Andrew Jackson.

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Jessica Machado

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Photo via US Govt/Wikipedia Wikipedia (PD) | Remix by Jason Reed

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said Thursday that changing the face of the $20 bill from Andrew Jackson to Harriet Tubman is not necessarily on his agenda.

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“It’s not something that I’m focused on at the moment,” he told CBNC.

Further pressed on the matter, Mnuchin said, “People have been on the bills for a long period of time. This is something we’ll consider. Right now we have a lot more important issues to focus on.”

Last April, Obama’s treasury secretary, Jack Lew, announced that the Civil War-era abolitionist would replace Jackson, a slave owner, on the bill, which would make her the first woman on U.S. paper currency.

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As New York magazine points out, the current administration’s change of heart could be because Jackson has a fan in the president. In previous interviews, Trump has cited the former president—who was responsible for displacing 17,000 Cherokee in the “Trail of Tears,” a horrendous trek that ended in over 4,000 deaths—as a role model with “a big heart.” He also suggested Jackson was “angry” about the Civil War even though he was dead when it began.

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Last year, when the bill change was announced, Trump said even though he thought Tubman was “fantastic,” swapping her in for Jackson was “pure political correctness.”

“Well, Andrew Jackson had a great history, and I think it’s very rough when you take somebody off the bill,” Trump said on the Today show.

The president then suggested she be put on the $2 bill instead—which is out of print.

H/T New York 

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