{"id":6193,"date":"2026-07-03T15:07:04","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T15:07:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=6193"},"modified":"2026-07-03T15:07:04","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T15:07:04","slug":"trump-returns-to-mount-rushmore-after-years-of-hinting-he-belongs-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=6193","title":{"rendered":"Trump returns to Mount Rushmore after years of hinting he belongs there"},"content":{"rendered":"

He\u2019s posted images of his face on the monument. He\u2019s called it a \u201cgood idea.\u201d And the White House says there would be \u201cno better addition.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>

Read more White and green McLarens reflect F1\u2019s movie heritage at British Grand Prix<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n
President Donald Trump at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota on July 3, 2020. (Alex Brandon\/AP)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

He hasn\u2019t explicitly said that he wants to be added \u2014 at least not in public.<\/p>\n

But on the eve of the nation\u2019s 250th anniversary, President Donald Trump is returning to Mount Rushmore after nine years of flirting with the idea of having one more face join <\/b>the four presidents: his own.<\/p>\n

Ahead of his visit to the national memorial on Friday, his White House said that adding Trump\u2019s face would be a welcome development \u2014 even though officials at Mount Rushmore have long said the monument cannot be carved further.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere would be no better addition to the iconic Mount Rushmore than the 45th and 47th President of the United States, Donald Trump,\u201d said Taylor Rogers, a White House spokeswoman, in a statement to The Washington Post.<\/p>\n

For a president who has had a golden statue of himself<\/a> erected at his golf resort and his name and image affixed to buildings, government programs, U.S. passports<\/a>, digital and physical coins, roads, and an airport, the landmark represents a rare limit: No presidential order or act of Congress can create more carvable rock.<\/p>\n

It has been on his mind. As recently as five weeks ago, the president \u2014 twice in one evening \u2014 posted to Truth Social digital mock-ups of his face next to the mountainside carvings of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.<\/p>\n

Soon after he first took office, Trump told a congresswoman in private that joining them was his dream<\/a>. When that Republican congresswoman, Kristi L. Noem, became South Dakota governor and gave Trump a sculpture depicting his face on Mount Rushmore next to Lincoln\u2019s, he put it on display at his Mar-a-Lago office.<\/p>\n

He last visited the monument six years ago, delivering a speech on July 3, 2020, that sought to rally supporters<\/a> around a law-and-order message central to his unsuccessful reelection campaign.<\/p>\n

On Friday, \u201cbeneath the towering faces of four of America\u2019s greatest presidents, President Trump will deliver a historic address commemorating the nation\u2019s 250th anniversary and charting a course for America\u2019s next chapter,\u201d Freedom 250, the White House-created organization heading up the semiquincentennial celebrations, wrote in an announcement of Trump\u2019s Mount Rushmore appearance.<\/p>\n

Two people with knowledge of the event planning, including a senior White House official, said there would not be a projection of Trump\u2019s face on Rushmore during the Friday night celebration.<\/p>\n

Trump, as he has danced around the idea of being added to Mount Rushmore since first taking office, has never batted it down.<\/p>\n

\u201cNever suggested it,\u201d he wrote on Twitter in 2020 in response to a New York Times report<\/a> that said a White House aide had inquired with Noem\u2019s office about the process of carving additional presidents. But Trump continued: \u201cAlthough, 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!\u201d<\/p>

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A year earlier, when asked by the Hill if he\u2019d like to see his face carved there, Trump replied<\/a> that he didn\u2019t want to say: \u201cIf I answer that question, \u2018Yes,\u2019 I will end up with such bad publicity.\u201d<\/p>\n

At a 2017 rally in Youngstown, Ohio, Trump declared that each of the presidents on Mount Rushmore \u201cbelieved in protecting American industry.\u201d He told the audience that he should \u201cask whether or not you think I will someday be on Mount Rushmore,\u201d but that he would face blowback for positing such a question.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I did it joking, totally joking, having fun, the fake news media will say, \u2018He believes he should be on Mount Rushmore,\u2019\u201d Trump said. \u201cSo I won\u2019t say it, okay? I won\u2019t say it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s allies have kept hope alive, however, even as Mount Rushmore officials and engineers who have long monitored the rocks there say it isn\u2019t possible.<\/p>\n

Days after he was sworn in for a second time, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Florida) in January 2025 filed a bill<\/a> directing the Interior Department to begin the process of having Trump\u2019s face carved onto Mount Rushmore. Around the same time, a Fox News panel, including former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and former representative Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), cheered on the idea. McEnany said it would be \u201cepic\u201d to have Trump\u2019s face added for the country\u2019s 250th anniversary \u2014 which would have left a year and a half to do so.<\/p>\n

Last July, Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tennessee) sent a letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum asking him to \u201cexplore\u201d adding Trump, saying that \u201cpast bureaucratic resistance or political discomfort\u201d should not stop the process.<\/p>\n

And Burgum himself, contradicting what past National Park Service officials had said, last year told Trump\u2019s daughter-in-law and Fox News host Lara Trump that it wasn\u2019t out of the question.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, they certainly have room for it there,\u201d Burgum replied when she asked if the United States would ever see Trump added to Mount Rushmore.<\/p>\n

In 2018, the public information officer at Mount Rushmore, Maureen McGee-Ballinger, told the Sioux Falls Argus Leader that \u201cthere is no more carvable space up on the sculpture,\u201d adding that the rock to the left of Washington can\u2019t be carved into, and what appears to be space next to Lincoln is \u201cbeyond the sculpture\u201d and an \u201coptical illusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Staff at Mount Rushmore and the National Park Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the memorial\u2019s geology had changed since.<\/p>

Read more Jo\u00e3o Fonseca stunned by Russian qualifier Roman Safiullin at Wimbledon<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The White House says there would be \u201cno better addition\u201d to Mount Rushmore than Trump, who last month posted an image of his face on the monument. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6190,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump returns to Mount Rushmore after years of hinting he belongs there - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=6193\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump returns to Mount Rushmore after years of hinting he belongs there - Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The White House says there would be \u201cno better addition\u201d to Mount Rushmore than Trump, who last month posted an image of his face on the monument.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=6193\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-03T15:07:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/a594be569e35e238dbcd36aecb159088-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=6193#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=6193\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"headline\":\"Trump returns to Mount Rushmore after years of hinting he belongs there\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-03T15:07:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=6193\"},\"wordCount\":1006,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=6193#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/b6b8b306f5f3725e7dc8ceebddaf59af-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=6193#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=6193\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=6193\",\"name\":\"Trump returns to Mount Rushmore after years of hinting he belongs there - Moving Insider USA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=6193#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=6193#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/b6b8b306f5f3725e7dc8ceebddaf59af-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-03T15:07:04+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=6193#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=6193\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=6193#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/b6b8b306f5f3725e7dc8ceebddaf59af-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/b6b8b306f5f3725e7dc8ceebddaf59af-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707,\"caption\":\"FILE - In this July 3, 2020, file photo, President Donald Trump stands at Mount Rushmore National Memorial, near Keystone, S.D. 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