A conservative YouTuber and Newsmax podcaster is facing intense backlash after making dismissive comments about Black women’s role in the founding of the United States, just as the Trump administration confirmed it has once again halted plans to place Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Spectrum News on Monday that the Treasury Department is “not, at present” moving forward with the decade-old effort to replace Andrew Jackson with the legendary abolitionist and Underground Railroad conductor on the nation’s currency.
Bessent offered no explanation for the decision, effectively shelving a proposal that was first launched during the Obama administration and revived by President Joe Biden after Trump delayed it in his first term.
The announcement landed just days after conservative commentator Benny Johnson questioned whether any Black woman had contributed to America’s founding.
The host of The Benny Johnson Show challenged viewers over the Fourth of July weekend to name “a single Black woman that had something to do with America’s founding.”
“Name, I want a name, OK, I need a name of a single Black woman that had something to do with America’s founding. Go,” Johnson said.
He then stumbled into an awkward reference to Thomas Jefferson’s relationship with Sally Hemings.
“I mean, like I can think, I, didn’t Thomas Jefferson have like half his family like out of wedlock with the slaves, I think. Isn’t that a historic fact. Anyway, that’s like as close as I can get,” Johnson said.
His comments came in response to Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s Fourth of July remarks at the Essence Festival in New Orleans, where she argued that America should recognize the central role Black women have played throughout the nation’s history.
“America owes Black women everything,” Crockett declared.
She said celebrating Black women matters “because whether it’s an invention that she made, or whether it’s the very democracy that still hangs by a thread right now, there is a Black woman to thank for her contribution.”
Now critics say the decision to abandon Tubman’s long-promised place on the $20 bill only reinforces the same message Johnson appeared to send: that Black women’s contributions are expendable or unworthy of national recognition.
The effort to feature Tubman on U.S. currency began in 2016 during the Obama administration. The redesigned bill was originally expected in 2020 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment. Trump’s first administration delayed the project until at least 2028, and the Biden administration later pledged to accelerate the redesign before Bessent confirmed this week that those plans have once again been abandoned.
The move comes as reports have surfaced that allies of President Donald Trump have floated putting Trump’s own likeness on a commemorative $250 bill for America’s 250th anniversary, though federal law has barred living people from appearing on U.S. currency since 1866. Bessent acknowledged such a proposal would require an act of Congress while explaining that redesigning existing bills takes years.
When Trump first postponed Tubman’s $20 bill in 2019, one of her descendants blasted the decision.
Ernestine Wyatt told CNN the delay “smacks of racist rhetoric.”
“I think it’s just a nice way of trying to say we don’t want this, we’re not going to have this, under any circumstances will we have this,” Wyatt said. “It’s just another delay and a diversion for what’s going on.”
Johnson’s own comments triggered a wave of outrage across social media.
“When I say they’re cartoon villain-level racists, I’m not joking,” one Threads user wrote.
Another responded, “This is what Scripture means when it says ‘their mouths are an open grave.’ When Benny Johnson opens his mouth, all the sickening silt of a decomposing soul pours out. Black women (and black men) BUILT this country, while lazy white slaveholders unfairly took credit for all their work.”
Author Wendy Webb also offered Johnson a history lesson.
“Hi! Benny? Is that your name? That’s a baby’s name. But whatev. Ever heard of the Culper Spy Ring? No? Haha yeah. I knew you hadn’t. That was George Washington’s ring of spies. A Black enslaved woman in the home of a British loyalist fed Washington info and is credited for the outing of Benedict Arnold. So shut. The f–k. Up.”
Others piled on.
“Racist, misogynistic, sociopathic, brutally cruel and stupid. Does his mother know what an a–hole her son is!”
Another wrote, “@bennyjohnson you’re an ignorant POS who does not understand the first thing about history. Our country was built on the backs of slaves and poor immigrants at the expense of those who were here before us.”
One commenter summarized the broader criticism.
“Would you look at that, ANOTHER racist white man STILL using Black women for clicks and profit.”
