President Trump has reportedly approached the governor of South Dakota enquiring as to how he could have his face added to Mount Rushmore.
The iconic monument, carved into the South Dakota mountainside, was built between 1927 and 1939 and features the faces of four presidents, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt. It was constructed as part of a back to work scheme under the then President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's 'New Deal', set up to counter the Great Depression.
The news that Trump sought to have his own face added has emerged from a New York Times report stating that his government aides approached the South Dakota Governor, Kristi Noem, to see if his face could be added, and what form that process would take.
In a 2018 interview, Governor Noem said that Trump had previously told her that his dream was to see his face on Mount Rushmore. Speaking with The New York Times, she recounted the story:
"I started laughing," Noem said.
"He wasn't laughing, so he was totally serious."
"He said, 'Kristi, come on over here. Shake my hand. And so I shook his hand, and I said, 'Mr. President, you should come to South Dakota sometime. We have Mount Rushmore.' And he goes, 'Do you know it's my dream to have my face on Mount Rushmore?'"
Trump recently held a rally at Mount Rushmore as part of Independence Day celebrations, despite harsh criticism from those who felt the gathering was likely to spread CoVid-19.
Mount Rushmore itself has been a source of controversy among the Native American population of the Dakotas. Many within the community feel that a huge carving of presidents who oversaw the theft of their land is an insult. Though this view is not shared by all Native Americans. A huge stone carving of Crazy Horse, a famed Native leader, is also being built close to Mount Rushmore and should be completed within the next few years.
Chairman Harold Frazier of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe echoed the views of many of the Native population, when he stated in June:
"Nothing stands as a greater reminder to the Great Sioux Nation of a country that cannot keep a promise or treaty than the faces carved into our sacred land on what the United States called Mount Rushmore. We are now being forced to witness the lashing of our land with pomp, arrogance and fire hoping our sacred lands will survive. This brand on our flesh needs to be removed and I am willing to do it free of charge to the United States, by myself if I must. Visitors look upon the faces of those presidents and extoll the virtues that they believe make America the country it is today. Lakota see the faces of the men who lied, cheated and murdered innocent people whose only crime was living on the land they wanted to steal. The United States of America wishes for all of us to be citizens and a family of their republic yet when they get bored of looking at those faces, we are left looking at our molesters."
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