WASHINGTON – Americans beyond the nation’s capital will soon have a chance to apply for limited-edition U.S. passports featuring President Donald Trump’s image and marking the 250th anniversary of the United States, the State Department announced Thursday.
Beginning next month, the department’s 27 passport agencies across the country will offer the commemorative travel documents. Until now, they had been available only to applicants who appeared in person at the passport office in Washington, D.C.
Trump’s stern-looking portrait appears on an interior page, making him the first living president to be displayed in a U.S. passport.
The special passports are the latest high-profile example of Trump’s name or likeness being placed on government-related items and public tributes. His image also appears on a gold-finished commemorative coin honoring America’s founding that the U.S. Mint has started producing. Separately, efforts are underway to add Trump’s signature to all newly printed U.S. paper currency, another unprecedented move for a sitting president.
“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.’”
Passport agencies in Centennial, Colorado; Chicago; Dallas; Detroit; New Orleans; New York; and Stamford, Connecticut, are set to begin offering the Trump passports during one-day special events starting Aug. 8. Additional passport offices will be added to the rollout throughout August.
Applicants seeking the special-edition passport must appear in person on the specific date listed for their location on the State Department’s passport website. Those applying for a standard passport will need to do so on different days.
The commemorative passport includes Trump’s portrait layered over a gold imprint of his signature on an inside page. Its cover also differs from the standard design, placing “United States of America” in bold gold lettering at the top and “Passport” at the bottom.
In addition, a small gold laminate American flag, with the number 250 encircled by stars, is at the bottom of the back cover.
The only presidents featured in current U.S. passports are in a double-page depiction of Mount Rushmore in South Dakota — George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.
Other depictions include the Statue of Liberty, the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall in Philadelphia, and scenes of the Great Plains, mountains and islands. Current passports also contain quotations from Martin Luther King Jr. as well as Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Dwight Eisenhower.
The addition of Trump’s picture and signature to the passport book is the newest step his aides have taken to increase the president’s visibility, including adding his name to the U.S. Institute of Peace building and the Kennedy Center performing arts venue, although that signage was later removed on a court order.
Trump also has made waves with his plans for a new White House ballroom and a massive arch to be built at one of the entrances to Washington from Virginia.
