The Passport Got a Product Launch. Trump's Portrait Was in the Preview.

A cartoon parody song about the week Washington relaunched the U.S. passport.

On September 29 the State Department previewed a redesigned passport at an event introducing America.gov. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called it the 2028 U.S. passport, said it had been rethought with the National Design Studio, and ran through the changes: "United States of America" moved to the top of the cover, a Great Seal that is "larger," "more prominent" and "more gold," and an eagle that "takes flight" when you flip the pages. He also promised the first passport you can apply for entirely online, starting next year, with a photo you take yourself — "no drugstore hostage photo" — and a delivery date you can actually track. 1

Travel reporters went back through the launch video and found something Rubio did not mention. For about ten seconds, at the 1:51:17 mark, a preview of the passport's contents showed an image of President Donald Trump on the inside cover — the same portrait that had been offered since April in an optional commemorative "Patriot Passport." Whether it stays in the final book is still unanswered: a State Department spokesperson declined to confirm that the president's image would appear when the redesign begins circulating. 23

Five sitting senators had already written to Rubio in May that the passport "has never—and should not now—feature an image of a sitting U.S. president," adding: "Even the most authoritarian and autocratic governments have avoided equating national identity to the sitting president in such a way." 2

The redesign is due in 2028, and passports issued under the current design stay valid until they expire. Anyone who does not want the new artwork in a document good for ten years is being told to obtain or renew in the coming months; whether travelers will be able to ask for an alternative once the design changes, and exactly when production shifts, have not been explained. 23

Comedians treated the unveiling as exactly what it looked like: a product launch. The Daily Show asked why Rubio was announcing a new passport design "like it's an Apple product launch," and The Tonight Show described a book carrying a "non-negotiable image of #Trump." 45

The song and every frame of the cartoon are original to this episode.