A ten-second slip in a government presentation may have revealed the future of the American passport. During a State Department media event on September 29 — pitched as a rollout of a new digital passport application system — a fleeting thumbnail preview showed the redesigned booklet's full contents. Tucked into those pages: a portrait of President Donald Trump, presented as part of the permanent redesign, not a special edition.
That's a significant shift from what Americans were told earlier this year. In April 2026, the State Department announced a commemorative "Patriot Passport" bearing Trump's image, tied to the 250th anniversary of the United States. That version was framed as entirely optional, available only "while supplies last" for people applying in person at the Washington Passport Agency in D.C. Five months on, the same portrait has appeared in a preview of the standard document for everyone.
Nobody official is confirming it, either. When Forbes asked the State Department directly whether the president's image would appear in all passports on a non-negotiable basis, a spokesperson declined to say. That silence is telling, because the commemorative edition already drew fire when it was announced. In May, five sitting US senators sent a joint letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio objecting that the US passport has never featured a sitting president's image and noting that, in their view, even autocratic governments have generally avoided putting their leader's face in the national travel document.
The redesign is due to arrive by 2028, and Rubio has also touted that the new book is "more gold." Meanwhile, reporting around the September event flagged other oddities: the presentation had a distinctly Apple-keynote vibe, and the White House website quietly scrubbed Biden's 2021 executive order that created the digital passport renewal system — a service that was actually completed in 2024.
So what does this mean for travellers, practically? A US passport is valid for ten years, which means anyone issued the new design will carry it well into the 2030s. If you'd rather have the current, president-free booklet, the window to get one is now. Renewals can be filed up to a year before expiration, and the existing all-digital renewal system — the one built under Biden — is still a quick route for eligible applicants. First-time applicants and those replacing lost passports still need to apply in person, but the standard design is being issued until the 2028 switchover.
Even if you're indifferent to the politics, this is a useful nudge: if your passport expires in the next couple of years, renewing early locks in the current document, spares you a potential 2028 application crunch, and keeps a bit of control over what's inside your travel documents for the next decade.
Credit: Frommer's
