 "US President Donald Trump at Mount Rushmore National Memorial in Keystone, South Dakota. There are calls by some Republicans to add the US president to the historic site. File image/AFP")
Donald Trump’s affinity for Mount Rushmore is widely known. On numerous occasions, the US president has expressed his intent and desire to be a part of the historic sculpture in the Black Hills of South Dakota, which features the faces of his four predecessors — George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.
Then this January, a Republican introduced a bill to carve the 47th president of the United States figure onto Mount Rushmore, which was referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources. And in March, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in an interview with Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, said that “they definitely have room” for Trump’s face on Mount Rushmore.
But is this possible? What do officials, experts and analysts say?
What’s Mount Rushmore?
Before we jump into the possibility of Trump being the fifth president on the historic sculpture, let’s understand what it is and the history behind it.
Formally known as the Mount Rushmore National Memorial, it is a colossal sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills near Keystone, South Dakota, United States. It pays tribute to four United States presidents — George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.
The idea of creating a monumental sculpture in the Black Hills was first suggested in 1923 by South Dakota state historian Doane Robinson, who had proposed creating likenesses of famous Native American and American Old West personalities on a needlelike rock formation in Custer State Park.
However, American sculptor Gutzon Borglum, who was hired to design and execute the project, chose nearby Mount Rushmore with its solid granite rock face and proposed the four presidents to symbolise the first 150 years of the country — Washington to represent the country’s founding; Jefferson, its expansion across the continent; Roosevelt, its development domestically and as a global power; and Lincoln, its preservation through the ordeal of civil war.
Work on the memorial began in October 1927 and completed in October 1941. Today, it attracts more than two million visitors annually and is one of the major tourist attractions in the country.
So, Trump wants to be the fifth president on Mount Rushmore?
Yes… Trump has expressed his desire to be a part of the historic site. In his first term, he had told Kristi Noem , then Congresswoman for South Dakota and now Secretary of Homeland Security, his desire to be carved into the mountain. Noem had then presented him a model of the monument with his face carved on it, as if to seal a future project.
In early August 2020, he also tweeted out a picture of himself standing in front of Mount Rushmore – as if to appear to be the the fifth presidential bust on the iconic monument.
Taking this forward, Anna Paulina Luna, a US Congresswoman from Florida, proposed a bill that would allow for Trump’s face to be carved on the Mount Rushmore national memorial in South Dakota.
At the time, she said, “President Trump’s bold leadership and steadfast dedication to America’s greatness have cemented his place in history. Mount Rushmore, a timeless symbol of our nation’s freedom and strength, deserves to reflect his towering legacy – a legacy further solidified by the powerful start to his second term.”
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who also oversees the National Park Service, has also suggested to Lara Trump that there was room on the national memorial for an additional face.
What do experts say?
There are various factors to take into consideration to add Trump to Mount Rushmore. The National Park Service, which oversees the sculpture, has expressed reservation against having a fifth president on the mountain.
It said that first and foremost, it considers Mount Rushmore as a completed work of art. Secondly, there’s no room. “The carved portion of Mount Rushmore has been thoroughly evaluated, and there are no viable locations left for additional carvings,” the park service said in a statement.
And experts agree with this assessment. Paul Nelson, a geomechanical engineer, told the New York Times that that it would be “extremely difficult, if not impossible, to carve an additional face on Mount Rushmore” due to existing fractures in the granite.
“One of the concerns about an additional face is that you could activate these fractures,” he explained. “If you remove material, you could be removing support.”
In fact, even Borglum encountered problems of cracks in the rocks while building the original structure. His crew spent 18 months carving Jefferson into the mountain only to realise the rock was riddled with cracks, forcing them to restart. It’s because of these very cracks that it appears that Jefferson has a hole in his lip.
What about adding a pre-carved image of Trump into the mountain? Experts observe that if the stone isn’t strong to carve, then it’s also highly probable that it can’t hold something.
But it’s not just geological reasons that prevent a bust of Trump being added to the memorial. Some of Trump’s critics note that by adding the likeness of the US president to the site would invite vandalism. One wrote on social media, “Isn’t his ego big enough already? This would get destroyed almost immediately.”
Another added: “If it did happen, there’d be a bunch of people blowing the whole mountain up.”
Even Robin Borglum Kennedy, the sculptor’s granddaughter, is against any change to the sculpture, noting in the New York Times, “Mount Rushmore was conceived as a tribute to the ideals of America, not to any one man.”
But beyond the geological and the philosophical barriers, there’s also the legal issue. Trump would likely need congressional approval to make any changes to the site, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Moreover, according to Jeremy R Paul, a professor of law and former dean of the Northeastern University School of Law, he would most likely face lawsuits from stakeholders, such as tribal nations or environmental groups. In fact, he noted that tribal nations and indigenous groups would have strong legal grounds to challenge such a proposal.
What can Trump do instead?
So, what should Trump do if he can’t be the fifth president on Mount Rushmore? The US president has pitched the idea of a National Garden of American Heroes — a sculpture garden to honour 250 Americans.
With inputs from agencies