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0 Share Newsweek is a Trust Project member See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. Americans across the country will soon be able to apply for a limited-edition U.S. passport featuring President Donald Trump ’s portrait as part of commemorations marking the nation’s 250th anniversary.
The State Department said Thursday that its 27 passport agencies will begin issuing the documents next month, expanding access beyond Washington, D.C., where they had previously been available only to people applying in person.
Trump is the first living president to appear in a U.S. passport . The nationwide rollout follows other efforts to place Trump’s name or image on prominent public objects and institutions. His portrait appears on a gold-finished commemorative coin produced to celebrate the country’s founding, while proposals have also sought to add his signature to newly printed U.S. paper currency.
Newsweek reached out to the White House for further comment on Friday.
Officially called the “Patriot Passport,” the commemorative document contains a portrait of Trump on an interior page, placed over a gold reproduction of his signature.
Its cover also differs from that of a standard U.S. passport. “United States of America” appears in bold gold lettering at the top, while “Passport” is printed at the bottom, reversing the layout used on current versions.
A gold laminate American flag appears on the back cover, alongside the number 250 surrounded by stars.
“In response to overwhelming demand, the Department of State is making an additional 250,000 of the special commemorative passports available to the public,” the department said in a statement. “Americans all across the country will now have the opportunity to apply for one of these additional special passports, known as the ‘Patriot Passport.’”
The only presidents currently shown in U.S. passports appear as part of an image of Mount Rushmore: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.
Other pages feature national landmarks and landscapes, including the Statue of Liberty, the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, the Great Plains, mountains and islands. Passports also include quotations from Martin Luther King Jr. and several former presidents.
Numerous Democratic lawmakers have decried the plan to have Trump on U.S. passports.
In a May 20 letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Democratic Senators Jeff Merkley, Chris Van Hollen, Jacky Rosen and Tim Kaine, together with independent Senator Angus King, urged the department to abandon the design.
“The U.S. passport has never—and should not now—feature an image of a sitting U.S. president,” the senators wrote in the letter published by King’s office.
Van Hollen separately condemned the plan, writing on social media: “It's a scary day in America when an actual King behaves more democratically than the President of the United States,” according to TIME.
California Governor Gavin Newsom mocked the passport by announcing a fictional state driver’s license displaying his own portrait.
"IN HONOR OF CALIFORNIA’S 175TH ANNIVERSARY, WE WILL BE ROLLING OUT A VERY SPECIAL DRIVER’S LICENSE FOR EVERY CALIFORNIAN THIS SUMMER! IT WILL FEATURE A HANDSOME, HIGH-QUALITY PHOTO OF ME, GAVIN C. NEWSOM," Newsom’s press office wrote on X, imitating Trump’s rhetorical style.
Public reaction to the design has also been largely negative. An Economist/YouGov poll conducted from May 1 to May 4 found that 62 percent of Americans disapproved of the commemorative passport, while 14 percent approved. The survey included 1,573 U.S. adult citizens and had an approximate margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.
Applicants seeking the commemorative version must attend a passport agency in person on dates identified on the State Department’s passport website, which is listed below.
The following agencies will offer Trump passports:
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Alabama Jackson and Cristina Diciu.
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