Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker accused President Donald Trump on Sunday of focusing on coins bearing his own likeness while the country is at war and families struggle with the cost of living. He summed up his view in one line: “We’re being led by clowns.” The post on X came four days after the Treasury Department urged Americans to take newly minted Trump dollar coins to their favorite liberal coffee shops. It ties together three flashpoints: a $1 coin carrying the president’s portrait, a U.S.-Iran war now in its eighth month, and gasoline prices that remain far above pre-war levels.
Pritzker’s full post, stamped 10:21 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026, read:
Trump is focused on coins bearing his face just to give them to liberals and “watch their heads explode.”
Our nation is at war. Families can’t afford groceries. US allies don’t respect us.
And this is what the President is doing. We’re being led by clowns.
The Treasury Video Behind the Post
The phrase Pritzker put in quotation marks traces to the Treasury Department’s own promotion of the coin. In a video on the department’s official TikTok account, U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach stood beside a display of the new coin and said, “Watch their heads explode.” Beach challenged viewers to get a roll of the coins next month and spend them at a liberal coffee shop, and he said the coins would be in banks next month. In a post on X dated Oct. 15, Beach wrote, “I love this president and I love this coin.”
The Coin and the Legal Fight
The coin has been in the works for about a year. In October 2025, Beach shared first-draft designs for a $1 coin honoring America’s 250th birthday, with Trump on both sides. The finished coin has Trump’s portrait on the front with the words Liberty and In God We Trust and the dates 1776 to 2026, and the presidential seal on the reverse. On July 15, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the coin in an X post, calling it “the enduring legacy of liberty and a lasting symbol of patriotism.” The U.S. Mint began selling the coins on Sept. 2, at $61 for a roll of 25 and $154.50 for a bag of 100. The Mint said in a post on X that the coins are also in circulation.
The coin has drawn objections over federal law. Democratic members of Congress argued in a letter to Bessent that it violates an 1886 law allowing only portraits of deceased individuals on currency and securities, and the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee did not approve designs for either Trump coin. At a Senate Banking Committee hearing in October 2025, Sen. Chris Van Hollen questioned the nominee for Mint director about the design, and the nominee said he was “100% committed to always following the law.” Beach has said the Mint could put Trump on a $1 coin without new legislation, saying “there’s no law against it.”
The coin is one of several moves putting Trump’s name or image on U.S. currency. In March, Treasury announced that U.S. paper money would soon carry Trump’s signature, and in May Bessent said the department was pursuing a $250 bill with Trump’s face on it. A $250 bill would require a change in federal law.
A War Now in Its Eighth Month
The war Pritzker referred to began Feb. 28. The Strait of Hormuz has been virtually shut since the United States and Israel began attacking Iran that day. Regular gasoline averaged $2.98 a gallon nationwide before the war, according to AAA. On Friday it stood at $4.33, which is 45% higher, while diesel was $6.33, up 68%. This is the first October in which a gallon of regular has averaged above $4. Gas peaked at $4.56 in May, and diesel set a record of $6.53 in September. On Sunday the average was about $4.30, compared with about $3.04 a year ago.
The economic toll extends past the pump. Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi estimated that the war has cost the average household almost $2,000. That includes $1,100 in higher energy prices, $540 in higher interest rates and $360 in military costs, and the energy portion is growing by $50 a week. A review of AAA data found that Tuesday was the 165th day this year with the national average at or above $4 a gallon.
Trump has repeatedly defended the price increases. On March 9, as the war entered its second week, he called higher prices “a small price to pay.” In a podcast interview in early June, he said inflation was low “if you take away just the price of gasoline.” At an Aug. 14 rally in New York, he said he would “never apologize” for starting the war. In mid-September, with the war past the six-month mark, he said the higher fuel costs were “a very inexpensive price to pay” for stopping Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
What the Administration Has Tried
The administration has taken several steps on prices. In March it announced a release of 172 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, about 40% of what was stored, as part of a coordinated release with other countries. It also issued a 60-day waiver of the Jones Act shipping restrictions and temporarily lifted certain sanctions on Russian oil. On June 29, Trump signed an emergency declaration letting several fertilizers enter the country without federal import taxes. Analysts said the oil and shipping measures were unlikely to have much effect, and that the only meaningful way to bring prices down was to open the Strait of Hormuz.
Diplomacy has produced pauses but no lasting settlement. On April 8, the two sides agreed to a two-week ceasefire brokered by Pakistan. Reuters reported that Iran and the United States agreed on June 17 to a 14-point memorandum of understanding under which the strait would reopen. On July 10, Trump said Iran had asked to continue talks and the United States had agreed, but that the ceasefire was “over.” In September, Trump said he was open to restarting talks, though there were few signs from either side that a deal was near.
Pritzker’s Record on the War and Prices
Sunday’s post follows months of Pritzker criticism over the war’s costs. On April 5, he wrote that gas prices were up, farms were folding and Americans had been sent to fight another Middle East war, then asked in capital letters, “WHERE IS DONALD TRUMP?” After Trump played down gas prices to reporters, Pritzker accused him of trying to “gaslight hard-working Americans.” At a Chicago event, Pritzker called the attack an “illegal war” that had hurt U.S. interests, and said Trump should have sought approval from Congress. In 2025, after Trump suggested using Chicago as a military training ground, Pritzker said the 25th Amendment should be invoked, saying “there is something genuinely wrong with this man.”
His office has also made the case in official statements. On Aug. 5, Pritzker sent a letter to the chief executives of the largest oil companies asking why Illinois families pay high prices at the pump while the companies report record profits. He said they faced a choice to “help ease the burden for families or exploit the conflict to generate windfall profits.” On Aug. 28, six months into the war, he urged Trump to suspend federal import taxes on nitrogen-based fertilizers relied on by Illinois corn farmers. The letter cited University of Illinois economists in saying nitrogen fertilizer now costs $1,123 a ton, up 36% from $828 last April, and told Trump, “Your war and your tariffs are squeezing Illinois farmers.”
Pritzker and Trump’s Cabinet
Sunday’s “clowns” remark is not Pritzker’s first public attack on members of Trump’s administration. On Oct. 7, 2025, he wrote on X that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was “ignoring his job” to take part in a push-up record event while Illinoisans faced Trump’s military troops. Hegseth replied the same day: “Governor, you might try a pushup or two.” Pritzker told a Chicago newspaper he had cleared his schedule waiting for a call from Hegseth about an expected troop deployment and received none.
Then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was a frequent target during Operation Midway Blitz, the immigration enforcement campaign in the Chicago area. In an official statement, Pritzker said Noem had canceled a Chicago press conference and was “running away scared from any accountability.” In late October 2025, after she rejected his request to pause enforcement over Halloween weekend, he said she always dresses in “law enforcement costumes.” Trump removed Noem on March 5, 2026, after contentious congressional hearings. Pritzker responded in a social media video, saying, “don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”
What Comes Next
Pritzker is campaigning for a third term as governor, and he has declined to rule out a run for president in 2028. His campaign has put the war’s price tag at nearly $50 billion and energy costs at $337 per household, and has pressed Republican challenger Darren Bailey to say where he stands on the war. The post also arrived as the administration was defending its record on prices. Bessent said Sunday that whether energy prices fall before the new year “will depend” on the Iran conflict, adding that the country will “get to the other side of the Iran conflict.” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said he was not comfortable with current prices but was glad they had come down in recent weeks. Vice President JD Vance said Saturday that in “some ways” the United States has “decisively won” the war. Beach said the Trump coins would be in banks next month.