It’s an iconic sculpture that has stood for almost 80 years and features 60-ft.-high granite faces of U.S. presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.
Mount Rushmore, in South Dakota, is the work of sculptor Gutzon Borglum who chose the four presidents because they “represented the most important events in the history of the United States.”
Now President Trump has reportedly expressed his “dream” to have his face on Mount Rushmore, according to South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem.
He joked about it during a rally just six months after becoming president.
Then Republican Governor Noem told the Sioux Falls Argus-Leader that in a meeting with the president she told him he should come to South Dakota sometime. “We have Mount Rushmore,” she told him.
She said Trump responded: “‘Do you know it’s my dream to have my face on Mount Rushmore?’. I started laughing. He wasn’t laughing, so he was totally serious.”
Trump said this was “fake news” moments after tweeting an image of himself in front of the iconic monument making him look like the fifth president in the line.
He added: “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.”
Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci told Inside Edition that he believed Trump’s desire to be featured on Mount Rushmore was “definitely not a joke.”
He added: “He’s an unbelievably insecure guy…so of course he’s serious about putting himself on Mount Rushmore.”
Adding a new presidential face to Mount Rushmore would take an Act of Congress and experts say any work would destabilize the existing monument.
Maureen McGee-Ballinger, public information officer at Mount Rushmore, said the question of adding another president was put to them on a daily basis.
‘It’s a work of art’
“There is no more carvable space up on the sculpture,” McGee-Ballinger said, as reported by the Argus Leader newspaper.
And even if there was Mount Rushmore is: “a work of art. You wouldn’t change an artist’s vision,” she added.
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