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World history is littered with the corpses of collapsed, dead, and obsolete currencies. The U.S. dollar eventually could be among them without a major monetary reset.

From the Roman denarius to the German mark and the South Vietnamese dong to the Soviet ruble, hundreds of currencies have been debased, diluted, demonetized, and discarded along the proverbial path of financial destruction.

Some paper currencies fail after a few months or years of hyperinflation; others survive multiple decades or centuries, their longevity often prolonged by devaluation, rebranding, and redenomination of banknotes. Only bronze, copper, gold, and silver have endured as money for millennia.

Profligate politicians and government officials have a notorious reputation—and reliable record—of destroying currencies. To avoid raising taxes and rousing populist uprisings, they borrow funds to finance budget deficits and warfare spending. They devalue domestic currencies to boost foreign exports. They expand the money supply to stimulate economic growth and inflate away indebtedness, thereby devaluing each currency unit issued.

Despite their best efforts to instill faith in legal tender and preserve the value of government-mandated money, when public and investor confidence is lost, currencies decline and die. The lifespan of debased fiat currencies is finite.

Viewing the Dollar in the Rearview

The U.S. dollar has existed as a currency for 230-plus years, first defined as a weight and purity of silver and gold, and later demoted to paper notes and electronic units not exchangeable for the precious metals. Since the first Federal Reserve Notes were issued in 1914, the debased and devalued dollar has lost 97 percent of its purchasing power. The evidence is revealed by the persistent inflation rate.

As the world’s leading currency, the dollar has reigned supreme for more than 80 years, supported by global economic dominance and superior military might. Today, the glory days of American strength and preeminence are viewed mostly in the rear-view mirror, thanks to the burgeoning federal debt, chronic trade deficits, and the country’s deteriorating financial position.

Since his 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) slogan has been explicitly nostalgic. MAGA expresses a yearning for a bygone era, when the United States was the world’s economic engine and industrial powerhouse during the post-World War II period known as the “Golden Age of Capitalism,” and before millions of American manufacturing jobs were offshored and the nation passed peak prosperity.

Contributing to the nation’s economic decline was the transition in the early 1970s from a gold-backed to a debt-based dollar, which accelerated currency debasement, irresponsible government spending, and financial malpractice by public officials.

Losing Faith in Fiat

Rising deficits and debt levels have increased recognition that U.S. dollars and dollar-denominated debt instruments aren’t the financial safe havens or stores of value they once were believed or perceived to be.

Wise investors and foreign nations are losing faith in the once-almighty dollar, other fiat currencies, and the debt-financing IOUs whose returns don’t keep pace with monetary inflation. The share of U.S. debt held by foreign investors is shrinking. Gold has been the beneficiary.

Net central bank gold buying over the last 15 years and recent exploding bullion prices provide the evidence. Those in the know are reducing their U.S. Treasury holdings and exchanging depreciating currencies for hard assets.

Even market-manipulating bullion banks—Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and UBS—believe the gold-buying trend will continue. JPMorgan analysts forecast the gold price will rise to $4,000 an ounce next year, and could hit $6,000 by the end of Trump’s term in 2029.

Runaway Debt & Financial Sanctions Threaten U.S. Hegemony

President Trump understands economic renewal is necessary to restore the nation’s prior greatness. However, massive federal deficits and the $37 trillion national debt act like a wet blanket, smothering the embers of economic development and growth.

Out-of-control government spending and runaway debt discourage and prohibit productive investment. They also imperil national security.

“The most significant threat to our national security is our debt,” said Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in 2010.

To defend the dollar as the world’s dominant currency and penalize political adversaries, the United States over the years has imposed economic and trade sanctions on enemies and rival nations—including Belarus, Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Russia, Syria, and Venezuela—and frozen financial assets of defiant foreign countries and officials. More recently, the Trump administration levied tariffs on overseas trading partners, both friends and foes.

Using trade embargoes and duties as a bludgeon to protect a currency, boost domestic exports, and promote economic revival may provide short-term benefits, but they also can prove counterproductive long-term by forcing economic competitors to seek alternatives to the dollar and U.S. Treasuries.

Economic and monetary initiatives by the BRICS+ nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, and United Arab Emirates) and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) that circumvent the dollar, including bilateral trade agreements, currency-to-gold convertibility and a proposed a gold-backed digital currency unit, pose increasing competition and a threat to U.S. hegemony.

Economic Renewal Demands Dollar Restoration

It's inconceivable to believe Trump can spark an American economic renaissance and increase U.S. exports without restoring domestic manufacturing and extending universal acceptance and viability of the dollar as the world’s top trade and reserve currency. Economic renewal is incompatible with dollar destruction.

Unfortunately, during the inaugural year of his second term, the president has moved in the opposite direction of fiscal responsibility. His “One Big Beautiful Bill” will increase the national debt by $3.4 trillion—$4 trillion with interest—and lift the nation’s borrowing limit by $5 trillion to $41.1 trillion. Additional deficit spending will further erode confidence in the U.S. currency and the nation’s ability to fulfill its debt obligations.

Declining foreign demand for U.S. debt prompted the passage of another legislative measure. Trump signed the GENIUS Act in July to create a new market for increasingly unstable dollars and undesirable government debt. Formally known as the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act, the law requires the regulated digital currencies to be backed by assets such as cash and short-term debt instruments.

Make the U.S. Currency Great Again

Rather than further impairing the nation’s finances by borrowing additional fiat Federal Reserve Notes, the federal government would be better served supporting the U.S. currency with gold backing, the 50-year gold-linked Treasury bonds proposed by former Trump economic advisor Judy Shelton, or another audacious hard-asset idea or innovation. A return to sound money would renew confidence in the currency and might even induce or require budgetary discipline by restricting government borrowing and spending.

To foster a new golden age in the United States, the U.S. dollar must be made great again. The currency must be viewed and accepted as superior and trusted money around the world. Gold—and silver—can do that.

Trump favors gold, at least as ornamentation. Since he moved into the White House in January, the Oval Office has been adorned with gilded décor and gold artifacts. But decorating presidential headquarters alone won’t usher in a golden era, promote fiscal responsibility, or support a sound and stable currency.

In February, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump administration was “going to monetize the asset side of the U.S. balance sheet for the American people” within the next 12 months. That deadline is rapidly approaching, though Bessent later dismissed revaluation of the nation’s gold holdings, and subsequent remarks by Trump about auditing the gold reserves at the Fort Knox (Ky.) Bullion Depository has faded from public discourse.

When it comes to the future of the U.S. dollar, it's impossible to know what trump card the Indomitable Donald has up his sleeve. With congressional support, Trump can secure his presidential legacy by making the nation’s currency great again, though those who don’t hold gold and silver are bound to suffer considerable pain in the process.

Without a bold monetary reset that reverses President Richard Nixon’s gold-delinking shock in 1971, the depreciating dollar will continue to deteriorate, destined to become another debased and failed currency destined for the dustbin of history.

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