Trump heads to Mount Rushmore, where efforts to impose his likeness have stalled

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: CNN Politics

PUBLISHED Jul 3, 2026, 6:00 AM ET


President Donald Trump returns to Mount Rushmore on Friday, and though the president has openly mused about adding his likeness to the storied national monument, it’s unclear if he can move the mountains necessary to make it happen. He’s brought it up jokingly at campaign rallies, posted hints on social media and called it a “good idea.”

He even raised the possibility with South Dakota’s governor during his first term, saying to then-Gov. Kristi Noem during an Oval Office meeting: “Do you know it’s my dream to have my face on Mount Rushmore?” “I started laughing,” Noem recalled in a 2018 interview with the Argus Leader. “He wasn’t laughing, so he was totally serious. … I said, ‘Come pick out a mountain.’”

Though the president has spent much of his second term taking steps to impose his style and tastes on architecture in the nation’s capital and even has an airport now named after him in Florida, the buck might just stop in South Dakota. He would quite literally need to pick out another mountain — it’s structurally not possible to add a fifth face to the storied monument.

Mount Rushmore sculptor Gutzon Borglum wrote in 1936 that the stone had “serious” limitations. “I doubt if it would be possible to change the composition, which is fixed, in any way to include a fifth head,” Borglum said. Nevertheless, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who oversees the National Park Service, said during an interview that there is “certainly” room for Trump’s face.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/03/politics/trump-speech-mount-rushmore

[FalloutShelter]

1. When exact is Jesus going to take the wheel?

MAKE IT STOP.

[rampartd]

2. i would agree with borglum that he knows that mountain as well as anyone

but if dear leader wants h is face carved on the brittle rock it will just make it easier, in the fullness of time, for the lakota to remove this blight upon their sacred black hills.

[llmart]

3. OK, so I think he should just pick out another mountain...

and I'm quite sure we can get a few DUers to volunteer to push him off it. Me first!

[Wonder Why]

4. His head on Mount Rushmore would be wonderful. His body in a waste site dump even better.

[ChicagoTeamster]

5. Bergum is a yes man and billionaire golf buddy. He's probably got some quid pro quo.

Just looking at the stone surrounding Rushmore you can see that there is no room for another face and the original architect said that the stone is difficult to work with and wouldn't support another face.

If they try anything they will probably destroy the existing structure and maybe even permanently damage one of the end faces (Lincoln and Washington) if they try to squeeze anything next to them. Trump wouldn't care though. He doesn't care about the damage he's already done to the White House or the US bases destroyed in the Persian Gulf.

[Haggard Celine]

29. He's destroying things on purpose, I think.

I'm not sure he knows it consciously, but he's going to fuck up all sorts of things before he goes. He really wants to destroy the government we have and put himself in its place. He sees that the thing is just too massive to take over, there are too many parts, so the thing to do is sabotage it. And he's dying, so he's on a time limit.

[SergeStorms]

6. How hard could it be.....

to carve an asshole on a mountain?

A little dynamite, a few jackhammers.......easy peasey, asshole squeezy.

[Martin Eden]

9. Maybe there's room on the backside of the mountain

[url=https://imgbb.com/][img][/img][/url]

[SergeStorms]

15. Looks like quite a crowd....

under Trump's desk today. 😉

[bluestarone]

25. Well i'm 100% sure that if there was only ONE ass up there we

Would KNOW who that ASS was!!

[Martin Eden]

7. I would rather the monument be completely demolished than add that vile creature's head

The carving of Tȟuŋkášila Šákpe Pahá (Six Grandfathers Mountain) was a desecration in the first place. The Black Hills were sacred to the Sioux people. In the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, the United States recognized the Black Hills as part of the Great Sioux Reservation, set aside for exclusive use by the Sioux people.

Of course, white prospectors sought gold in the Black Hills, and the conflict that ensued robbed more land from Native Americans. Defacing their sacred mountain with the images of white conquerors added insult to that injury.

[yardwork]

10. Yes. It's been a disgrace from day one.

[Midwestern Democrat]

16. Even putting aside the Native American issue, just from the standpoint of conservation, the idea of destroying

such a beautiful, natural wonder like a mountain for the purposes of adding man-made sculptures is kind of sick-making.

[Martin Eden]

19. When the Music's Over

What have they done to the earth, yeah?
What have they done to our fair sister?
Ravaged and plundered and ripped her and bit her
Stuck her with knives in the side of the dawn
And tied her with fences and dragged her down

- Jim Morrison

[Bayard]

22. Well said!

The Ft. Laramie treaty was broken by greed. The Sioux don't want reparations--they want their land back that was stolen from them, (and take your damn giant heads with you!)

Just the thought is nauseating. It would take many many years to add trump's ugly mug. He'll be long dead before it ever started.

[dave99]

27. Ft. Laramie treaty, signed by forked tongued white guy

[pansypoo53219]

30. i know we onlyb saw it from a distance, but i would love for it to be detroyed along w/ stone mountain. tho i know

others like it.

[DrFunkenstein]

8. His Nobel Peace Prize Efforts Have Stalled, Too

A bit like his Day One agenda with grocery prices. But at least he pardoned the J6 terrorists. I'm sure they went back to being peaceful, law-abiding citizens...

[wolfie001]

13. The orange fatty has killed so many people directly and indirectly with his asinine policies nt

[mdbl]

11. He has a better chance getting himself put on the ass of the horse at Stone Mountain.

I am sure Kemp would help him in that effort.

[Earth Bound Misfit]

20. I LIKE it! eom

[wolfie001]

12. Half the country has always hated him

Just a lot of idiots who were either too stupid or too lazy not to vote for Kamala or Hillary. Stupid, lazy American voters are the reason that fat orange imbecile is at Mt. Rushmore.

[wolfie001]

14. The original sculptor of Mt. Rushmore was a regular attendee of KKK rallies

Should be noted!
From his Wikipedia:

[SergeStorms]

17. If it looks like a duck....

and quacks like a duck, it's probably a KKK duck.

[ultralite001]

21. More about Madge Oberholtzer... cited in the Wiki...

TRIGGER WARNING [This gives off definite Epstein vibes, even if many years before the rise of J Epstein + DJ Tr*mp]



https://web.archive.org/web/20190723021949/https://www.indystar.com/story/news/history/retroindy/2018/11/14/murder-madge-oberholtzer-rape-poison-and-kkk-d-c-stevenson/1978705002/

[wolfie001]

24. I read that and was horrified

Nasty mf'ers.

[Raven123]

28. I recall reading about her in Timothy Egan's book

A Fever in the Heartland.

Chilling.

[twodogsbarking]

18. Maybe it will collapse on him. His new jet was manufactured in 2012. Maybe it will..........

[JoseBalow]

23. I wish they would!

Just make it really small, and low & off to the side where it can't be seen. He'd hate that!

[Raven123]

26. So which head will he destroy to replace with his own?

[Deminpenn]

31. Apparently big, dangerous storms are rolling through the area

Jen Psaki showed a clip of Brett Baier, iirc, live on air as Fox was covering the event saying he and presumably the rest of his crew, were headed for cover and would return at a later time..