“For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents,” Trump posted on his social media site Truth Social. “This is so wasteful! I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies. Let’s rip the waste out of our great nations budget, even if it’s a penny at a time.”

The penny has been in the crosshairs of Trump officials since he took office. Last month, DOGE, the department run by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, said that producing 4.5 billion pennies in Fiscal Year 2023 cost taxpayers more than $179 million.