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Harriet Tubman's $20 Spot Might Not Be Safe

by Alexandra Spychalsky

We all know that women have too much representation, too much respect and too much autonomy over their own bodies in the world today, Thus, it's only natural that Donald Trump would feel the will of the people, and express his support for not putting Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill.

The discussion about adding a woman to the currency began in June 2015, when U.S. Secretary Treasury Jack Lew announced that it would put a woman on the $10 bill. Some 1.5 million people voted, and it was announced in April of this year that Harriet Tubman won the coveted spot. But some pushed that the change should be made to the $20 bill, saying its current face, Andrew Jackson's involvement in the Trail of Tears made him a better option to replace than Alexander Hamilton, who is on the $10 bill (and the subject of the wildly popular Hamilton musical).

During his campaign, Trump commented on the move by the Treasury, saying on TODAY in April that it was "rough" to remove Andrew Jackson from the $20 in favor of Tubman. He called the move "pure political correctness," and suggested "Maybe we do the $2 bill or we do another bill." Trump's criticisms make compete sense. Women have enough positive, high-powered, influential role models plastered all over this country. They don't need the encouragement of seeing a female hero on currency, like downtrodden white males do. And we all know that women are so tired of having to deal with political correctness, or as we often call it, maintaining a general baseline level of respect for all peoples.

Trump has said time and time again that he supports and "cherish[es] women," so obviously his planning for potentially moving a woman from the widely-circulated $20 bill to the what-the-hell-am-I-supposed-to-do-with-this $2 bill is another feather among the many in Trump's women's rights cap.

It's unclear if Trump would be able to derail the currency change, but advocates for the Tubman $20 bill are afraid that he might make good on that campaign suggestion. Susan Ades Stone, executive director of the nonprofit organization Women on 20s, told MarketWatch, "It would be a slap in the face of women to reverse the decision in our opinion." MarketWatch reported that Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew would not say last month if Trump could affect the planned redesign, but said that the change had widespread support, and that the announcement had already "left an important mark."

Time will tells if Trump delivers yet another great victory for women by bumping Harriet Tubman off the $20.