DONALD TRUMP & BEN CARSON BEMOAN DECISION TO PUT THE PORTRAIT OF HARRIET TUBMAN ON THE $20 BILL - PREFER TO SEE HER ON THE $2 BILL INSTEAD

Donald Trump and his former Republican presidential rival Ben Carson have both questioned plans to put abolitionist Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill. 

Mr Trump, fresh off a thumping primary win in New York, said the move was 'pure political correctness', while Mr Carson, who is now a campaign surrogate for the billionaire echoed his sentiment.

'I think Harriet Tubman is fantastic,' Mr Trump said during a town hall event broadcast live on NBC's 'Today' show, but 'I would love to leave Andrew Jackson and see if we can maybe come up with another denomination.

Not worthy? Carson said Andrew Jackson, who is currently on the bill (above), should not be moved due to a redesign as he was 'a tremendous president'

Lesser spotted: Thomas Jefferson features on the $2 bill, which is rarely seen in circulation

'Maybe we do the $2 bill or we do another bill.'

'I don't like seeing it,' he added. 'Yes, I think it's pure political correctness.'

Trump defended Andrew Jackson, the former US president and father of the Democratic Party, despite his history as a slave-owner. 

'Pure political correctness': Mr Trump, pictured at an NBC Town Hall at the Today Show this morning, suggested Tubman might be better on the $2 bill

Jackson is also reviled by descendants of American Indians as the architect of an Indian removal policy in 1838 and 1839 that required the migration of native tribes in a forced march that killed than 10,000 – an event known as the Trail of Tears.

The seventh U.S. president also, however, was the only American leader to be held as a prisoner of war, the only one to retire the entire national debt, and the first to be targeted for assassination.

'Andrew Jackson had a great history,' Trump argued on Thursday, 'and I think it's very rough when you take somebody off the bill. Andrew Jackson had a record of tremendous success for the country ... and really represented somebody that really was very important to this country.'

Mr Carson meanwhile told Fox Business: 'I love Harriet Tubman. I love what she did, but we can find another way to honor her. Maybe a $2 bill.

'Andrew Jackson... was a tremendous president. I mean, Andrew Jackson was the last president who actually balanced the federal budget, where we had no national debt.' 

Republican Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, has also voiced his unhappiness at President Jackson being displaced.

'United States history is not Andrew Jackson versus Harriet Tubman,' he said in a statement. 'It is Andrew Jackson and Harriet Tubman, both heroes of a nation's work in progress towards great goals.

'It is unnecessary to diminish Jackson in order to honor Tubman. Jackson was the first common man to be elected president. He fought to save the Union. He defined an American era. He helped found the Democratic Party. And he was a great Tennessean.' 

The redesign of the $20 note, announced by Jack Lew, the Treasury Secretary, on Wednesday, signals the first time an African-American has featured on a US paper note.

It will see Mr Jackson moved to the back of the bill, with Miss Tubman on the front.

Thomas Jefferson is currently on the lesser spotted $2 bill.