President Trump has broken with tradition and given a dramatic redesign to the presidential "challenge coin" given out by the commander in chief.
Gone are the words "E pluribus unum" and the presidential seal, replaced by Trump's slogan, "Make America Great Again," and his full name in two places.
It's also noticeably thicker and larger than the coins of his predecessors and is, in the words of one White House aide to the Washington Post, "very gold."
Trump “wanted to weigh in" on the redesign of the coin, often pressed into the palms of military members and first responders, the staffer told the Post.
President Trump had a “personal hand” in designing the new presidential coin, believe it or not. https://t.co/NIJOU9UN0B pic.twitter.com/pZzyuCpgeb— Scott Bixby (@scottbix) December 22, 2017
The highly collectable coins are steeped in military custom and presented to personnel for exemplary service.
Another White House aide told the Post that Trump's coins are "going to be used in ways they haven’t been in the past,” possibly distributed at campaign rallies and dispensed to donors.
"I’m sure there will not be just one coin during his tenure. I’m sure the next one will say ‘Made America Great Again,’ ” the staffer said.
Trevor Potter, a former Republican chairman of the Federal Election Commission, questioned the decision to put Trump's campaign slogan on his coin.
“For the commander in chief to give a political token with a campaign slogan on it to military officers would violate the important principle of separating the military from politics, as well as diminishing the tradition of the coin,” Potter said.