{"id":741973,"date":"2026-07-04T02:13:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T02:13:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/741973\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T02:13:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T02:13:16","slug":"trump-to-speak-at-mount-rushmore-one-monument-he-cant-remake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/741973\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump to speak at Mount Rushmore, one monument he can\u2019t remake"},"content":{"rendered":"

KEYSTONE, S.D. \u2014 A federal building in Washington has been named after Donald Trump, as have naval battleships, an airport in Palm Beach, Florida, and a new government savings account.<\/a><\/p>\n

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But no presidential distinction rivals having one\u2019s likeness carved onto Mount Rushmore \u2014 an honor destined to elude Trump, as even some of his ardent supporters seem to recognize.<\/p>\n

Trump flew to the monument Friday night on the eve of the 250th anniversary of the nation\u2019s independence. He is to speak beneath the towering granite images of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt. Weather interfered in the pre-program, with rain and hail forcing visitors to seek shelter in a cafeteria on the grounds.<\/p>\n

Would Trump like to be the fifth face on the mountaintop? Back in his first term, then-Rep. Kristi Noem of South Dakota said he told her his \u201cdream\u201d was to join his celebrated predecessors atop Mount Rushmore.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\u201cI started laughing,\u201d Noem, a Republican who was Trump\u2019s homeland security secretary this term, said in 2018<\/a>. \u201cHe wasn\u2019t laughing, so he was totally serious.\u201d <\/p>\n

He had to settle. As South Dakota governor in 2020, Noem gave Trump<\/a> a 4-foot-high model of Mount Rushmore that included his image.<\/p>\n

That year, news outlets reported that Trump White House aides had inquired about adding faces to the monument. Trump denied it, though he said on social media<\/a> that \u201cbased on all of the many things accomplished during the first 3 1\/2 years, perhaps more than any other Presidency, sounds like a good idea to me!\u201d<\/p>\n

For a face to be added to Mount Rushmore, Congress would have to approve, but the practical reality is that the mountain can\u2019t handle one<\/a>. It lacks enough rock to sculpt another face. <\/p>\n

That was evident early on. The sculpture was built from 1927 to 1941. During construction, lead sculptor Gutzon Borglum<\/a> wrote that the \u201cstone limitations are so serious, that I doubt if it would be possible to change the composition, which is fixed, in any way to include a fifth head.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greeting visitors at the monument before the celebration began, Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said in an interview, \u201cUnfortunately, we actually looked at Ronald Reagan, as well, and the problem is the geologists we\u2019ve talked to tell us there\u2019s simply no good rock on the mountain.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Men“It was a bit of a rocky journey,” an Abraham Lincoln impersonator said, describing his trip down from Mount Rushmore to mark the Fourth of July celebration at the monument.Peter Nicholas \/ NBC News<\/p>\n

Hope still lingers. A week after he was sworn in last year, one of his allies, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., introduced a bill calling for Trump\u2019s likeness to be carved on the mountain. The bill went nowhere; it never advanced out of the House Natural Resources Committee.<\/p>\n

Luna has since found new ways to celebrate Trump. In October, she nominated him for a Nobel Peace Prize, an accolade that has also been on his mind<\/a>. Her office didn\u2019t reply to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden, a Republican, said in a statement Friday, \u201cThere\u2019s supposedly not enough room up there to add another face, but if they were able to find some extra space to add someone, I think presidents Trump or Reagan would be good candidates!\u201d<\/p>\n

Rounds, though, was noncommittal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think America decides those things,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A running theme of Trump\u2019s second term is how he\u2019ll be remembered. He has one idea, his detractors have another, and the courts have emerged as the referee. A Kennedy Center board populated by Trump loyalists added his name to the building, but a federal judge <\/a>ordered it struck off.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration chiseled his name onto the U.S. Institute of Peace Building in Washington. That one remains.<\/p>\n

One of Trump\u2019s supporters, who won a special lottery to attend the Independence Day event at Mount Rushmore, said Trump has earned a place on the mountaintop.<\/p>\n

Wearing a MAGA hat as he sat in the cafeteria at the site, Mike Pack, 74, of Oregon, said: \u201cHe\u2019s the greatest president we\u2019ve had in my lifetime. I like that he\u2019s trying to get everybody together and unite everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

A pair of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln impersonators strolling the grounds considered whether they should share company above with Trump. In appropriate costume, each said he\u2019d like to see the monument preserved intact.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they\u2019ve captured the necessary elements, and any changes might create more trouble than it\u2019s worth,\u201d Lincoln said in an interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I wholeheartedly concur with my able co-agitator across time, Mr. Lincoln,\u201d said Washington. \u201cI think things as they stand are just fine.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KEYSTONE, S.D. \u2014 A federal building in Washington has been named after Donald Trump, as have naval battleships,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":741974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-741973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=741973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/741974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=741973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=741973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=741973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}