Donald Trump is nothing if not consistent: he consistently tweets deplorable things about the Black Lives Matter protests, he loves to make up facts about COVID-19 on Twitter, and he fanciest himself the greatest president of all time. OK!
How great? Well, in staying consistent with his brand, Trump believes that his face deserves a permanent fixture on one of America's most notorious presidential monument. In a recent New York Times article, Trump and the White House were accused of asking to add new presidents' faces to Mount Rushmore. South Dakota governor Kristi Noem revealed to the Times on Friday that a White House aide got in touch with her office in 2019 saying that Trump had questions about how he’d go about getting his own face on the famous rock.
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But, Trump is never one to be made a fool — or at least, not unless it's at his own hands. Following the news that he wanted his face donned beside Teddy Rosevelt and George Washington, a trigger-happy Trump jumped on Twitter to deny the story. “This is Fake News by the failing @nytimes & bad ratings @CNN. Never suggested it although, based 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!” AHA — OK!
But Mount Rushmore and its legacy is already wracked with historical controversy. The Great White Men™ who “built” this country were once chosen as the faces of Mount Rushmore; however, the monument's construction saw mass opposition from the Lakota Sioux tribe for the destruction of their honored Black Hills, and has since been a point of controversy for Native American communities and advocates alike. But of course, the president — who’s failed to lead the U.S. in a pandemic, has actively separated migrant families, and banned transgender troops from serving in the military — now (allegedly) wants to be a part of that history.
And, this isn’t even the first time Trump has sought to mount his face on The Mount. Noem said in an interview back in 2018 that, when visiting the Oval Office to meet the president, Trump casually told her “Do you know it’s my dream to have my face on Mount Rushmore?" She went on to say that “I started laughing. He wasn’t laughing, so he was totally serious.” Trump also casually, and absolutely not borderline obsessively, floated the idea of adding his face to the monument during a 2017 rally in Ohio.
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Luckily for Trump (but not for the rest of us), we don't really have to imagine what he would look like on South Dakota’s most famous stone: photos taken of the president during his visit to Mount Rushmore this past July look almost as if he could be a fifth head etched next to Abraham Lincoln. Almost. He was also presented with a four-foot mockup of Mount Rushmore with his face included, which he used to celebrate the Fourth of July.
Unfortunately, though, we are so sorry to this man, but orange isn't a color that really works with Mount Rushmore's palate.