The American President's New Challenge Coin

Challenge coins are "a small coin or medallion that symbolizes membership in an organization. They are often used by the military, law enforcement, and other organizations." They may also be used to signify support for a particular organization, or given out by someone as an informal award to show appreciation and reward excellence.

Well, it has come to my attention that the current President of the United States now has a challenge coin, one which bears a coat of arms.

As you can see, the reverse of this coin bears a coat of arms, with the President's name where a motto scroll would normally be placed.

However, as has been noted before, the arms here are not those of the Trump family, but are a slightly-modified version of the arms granted in 1939 by the College of Arms in London to Joseph Edward Davies, American diplomat and the husband of Marjorie Merriweather Post, from whom Mr. Trump purchased the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida as his residence.

Here are images of the Davies arms and the version that Trump has used for several years (which have been further modified by changing the colors of the field and lions, and using lions rampant as opposed to demi-lions, and using a more complete version of his name instead of just the surname, on the coin, above).

I can only assume that Mr. Trump (or more likely, one of the people who works or worked for him) assumed that the arms of Mr. Davies, placed prominently at Mar-a-Lago, were now his property to use as he saw fit. (The Lord Lyon King of Arms had a different "take" on this a few years ago when Mr. Trump built a golf course in Scotland and wanted to use the Davies arms as the course's logo. A new, different coat of arms was then granted by Lyon for the golf course.)

There are a number of articles still available on the internet that discuss the usurpation of Mr. Davies' arms by Mr. Trump. Here are just a few of them:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40097665?fbclid=IwY2xjawIi8uVleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHXuTFCHgD8O6l75Q5eMrWhH27CZh3z_bW0wtPauyP3EUzpGQnbtE4rDLuA_aem_APKrc2eNRUDbEdTrBKgfkA

https://www.rosieburbidge.com/post/trump-and-his-coat-of-arms

https://www.heraldsun.com/news/politics-government/article153198454.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4551060/Coat-arms-used-Trump-properties-rip-off.html

While it is nice to see heraldry still in use today, this instance of it rather begs the question: Do the arms on the challenge coin represent President Trump personally, or do they represent his companies and/or his residence at Mar-a-Lago? I ask only because this modification of the Davies arms seems to have been used both ways.