WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Mint stopped making pennies in 2025, but legislation passed by the Senate and headed to President Donald Trump’s desk will formally end their production after 234 years.
The bill, passed by voice vote late Monday, directs the government to not make pennies, giving a legal stamp of approval to the Trump administration’s decision to stop producing the currency last year. The penny, among the first coins to be made after the Mint was established in 1792, has become increasingly expensive to produce and is used by fewer and fewer consumers as digital transactions have become more standard.
Trump is expected to sign the bill. He wrote in a social media post last year that the U.S. has produced the 1-cent coin for “far too long."
The Mint says that production of a penny now costs almost 4 cents and that ceasing to make them would generate immediate savings of $56 million annually.
The bipartisan bill, called The Common Cents Act, was sponsored by Reps. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., and Robert Garcia, D-Calif.
“When it comes to taking on waste and making sure our tax dollars are spent wisely, it’s common sense that we should stop making a coin that costs nearly four times more than it’s worth to produce,” Garcia said.
Pennies are still in circulation, and the formal end to their production doesn’t mean consumers or stores can’t use them. The Mint said it made 3.2 billion pennies in 2024.
The bill outlines new procedures for stores as pennies are phased out, and it allows them to round transactions up or down to the nearest 5 cents.
Retailers had pushed for the bill to eliminate the threat of lawsuits as penny circulation has dwindled.
“Businesses across the country have faced cascading impacts from the lack of pennies in circulation, operating under constant uncertainty about how to handle cash transactions when exact change is unavailable,” a coalition of retailer groups wrote to House leaders in a letter earlier this year.
The bill would also allow the government to use an inner layer of zinc when producing the nickel, which could increase in circulation as the penny is phased out. The 5-cent coin is currently made from both nickel and copper, which is more expensive than zinc.
FILE - A person holds a giant penny at a mock funeral for the coin, Dec. 20, 2025, in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has lauded its revamped website America.gov as a way to simplify Americans’ access to information and services scattered across a plethora of agency sites, but President Donald Trump probably won't like some of the answers his new site says are sourced from government information.
Asking the site — which says it’s sourced via artificial intelligence from “official government sources” — questions about who won the 2020 election or about the name of the federal department that operates out of the Pentagon yields answers contrary to those Trump himself frequently proclaims.
As Trump was still speaking at Tuesday’s launch event, however, the site began modifying its answers. Asked again about the 2020 election, it replied that it couldn’t answer “political questions," a response it also gave to inquiries about whether Trump had been impeached or convicted of felony charges.
The Associated Press asked about:
“Official federal sources do not show that widespread fraud changed the 2020 presidential election outcome. Isolated election crimes did occur and have been prosecuted.”
Since Trump, a Republican, lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden, he has repeatedly falsely claimed that victory was “stolen” from him and asserted that widespread fraud occurred. Repeated audits and recounts found no significant fraud in the presidential election, and Trump’s own administration said the election was clean.
“The 22nd Amendment says that no person shall be elected President more than twice. Donald J. Trump has already been elected twice (2016 and 2024). I am not giving legal advice.”
Trump has frequently suggested he wants to seek a third term, posting about mounting another campaign, donning 2028 caps and discussing ways to make it happen — even as he’s acknowledged the Constitution prohibits it. He had only been back in the White House for a couple of months when he told NBC News, “There are methods which you could” use to seek a third term.
“The Pentagon is the headquarters of the Department of Defense.”
Last year, Trump signed an executive order aimed at rebranding the Department of Defense as the Department of War, complaining that the Department of Defense’s name was “woke.”
“Federal climate-science pages say recent warming is largely from human greenhouse-gas emissions, mainly burning fossil fuels. Earth’s climate has also changed for natural reasons over long periods.”
Trump, who has called climate change a “hoax,” previously issued an executive order that directed the Environmental Protection Agency to submit a report on “the legality and continuing applicability” of the endangerment finding. Conservatives and some congressional Republicans have long sought to undo what they consider overly restrictive and economically damaging rules to limit greenhouse gases that cause global warming.
The chatbot said that “some presidents have declined to keep that pay,” mentioning Trump but listing George Washington, Herbert Hoover and John F. Kennedy as refusing their salaries before Trump.
During his remarks Tuesday, Trump, a real estate mogul who took in about $1.2 billion from various crypto holdings last year, said he was the first U.S. president to forgo a salary, something that he has said before.
Kinnard reported from Columbia, S.C.
President Donald Trump holds a signing ceremony, surrounded by cabinet members and others, during an event to mark the launch of the America.gov website, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
The shadow of President Donald Trump is cast on a backdrop bearing the presidential seal and the America.gov logo beside the presidential flag as he speaks at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump arrives to speak during an event to mark the launch of the America.gov website, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
President Donald Trump speaks during an event to mark the launch of the America.gov website, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
