Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) has officially introduced legislation to add an engravement of President Donald Trump to Mount Rushmore, immortalizing his chiseled visage alongside those of other presidential greats.
If enacted, Luna's proposed bill—filed Tuesday—would direct the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, through the director of National Park Services, to arrange for the carving of Trump's face into the iconic 60-foot South Dakota landmark.
I've officially introduced legislation to put President Trump's face on Mount Rushmore.
— Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (@RepLuna) January 28, 2025
His remarkable accomplishments for our country and the success he will continue to deliver deserve the highest recognition and honor on this iconic national monument. Let's get carving! pic.twitter.com/vfFuebuS7F
"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," Luna said in a press statement. "He will be forever remembered among the great like Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt."
According to Luna's congressional office, the bill aims to honor Trump "for his transformative impact on America and the historical significance of his leadership." Trump's addition to the national monument would enshrine "the consequential accomplishments made under President Trump's leadership, including economic growth, national security, and a foreign policy that brought peace to the world and put America first," she said.
"Let's get carving!" the GOP congresswoman proclaimed on X.
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Luna attached a rendering of what Trump would look like carved out of granite as part of the colossal sculpture.
The movement to Trump-ify Mount Rushmore gained ground this week. In a Monday segment of "Outnumbered," the Fox News panel endorsed the idea. "I think there's a great case for it!" Fox News contributor Jason Chaffetz said. Co-host and former Trump White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany proposed making Mount Trumpmore happen on the 250th anniversary of America's founding. "It would be epic," she said.
"What are we waiting on? Donald Trump's face should be on Mount Rushmore. We got the votes in the House. We got the votes in the Senate. I know a guy who is gonna sign it named Donald John Trump," ex-Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said on conservative commentator Benny Johnson's show.
Luna then answered Lewandowski's call for a member of Congress to "do the honors."
"President Trump is actively leaving a legacy of prosperity, strength, and unity that has historically reshaped America," she posted. "He has undoubtedly earned his place alongside our nation's iconic leaders on Mount Rushmore. We will make this happen."
Trump has denied ever seriously considering such a proposal.
In a 2020 tweet, Trump fact-checked a New York Times report that his White House aides had reached out to then-South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem about adding him to Mount Rushmore, although he did quip that it "sounds like a good idea to me!"
This is Fake News by the failing @nytimes & bad ratings @CNN. Never suggested it 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! https://t.co/EHrA9yUsAw
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 10, 2020
At the time, when Trump had visited her state for an Independence Day celebration, Noem also reportedly gifted him a four-foot replica of Mount Rushmore with his likeness added on as the fifth presidential bust.
In 2018, Noem told The Argus Leader, a newspaper in Sioux Falls, that the two had struck up a conversation about the memorial while meeting in the Oval Office for the first time. "Do you know it's my dream to have my face on Mount Rushmore?" Trump supposedly said, per Noem's recollection. "I started laughing," she said. "He wasn't laughing, so he was totally serious."
Maureen McGee-Ballinger, a public information officer at the Mount Rushmore memorial, told the local outlet that "There is no more carvable space up on the sculpture." Although it appears there might be some space on the left next to Washington or right beside Lincoln, the PIO said, "You are either looking at the rock that is beyond the sculpture (on the right), which is an optical illusion, or on the left, that is not carvable."
There is another option, though, as Noem, who was just confirmed as his Homeland Security secretary on Saturday, suggested to Trump. "Come pick out a mountain," she joked, according to The Argus Leader.
Trump himself has previously joked about being on Mount Rushmore. During a 2017 rally in Youngstown, Ohio, he cheekily toyed with the possibility.
"I'd ask whether or not you think I will someday be on Mount Rushmore, but here's the problem: If I did it joking, totally joking, having fun, the Fake News media will say, 'He believes he should be on Mount Rushmore.' So I won't say it, OK? I won't say it," Trump jested.
Trump is not the only 21st century president to be considered Mount Rushmore-worthy. MakeRoomOnRushmore.com, a now-defunct website, was dedicated to seeing Barack Obama one day etched into the Black Hills mountainside.
Last year, in an appearance on the "CBS Sunday Morning Show," former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) argued that then-President Joe Biden deserves a spot on Mount Rushmore because he's been "such a consequential president of the United States, a Mount Rushmore kind of president of the United States."
CBS correspondent Lesley Stahl, seeming shocked at Pelosi's suggestion, especially since she played a part in ousting Biden, retorted, "Are you really saying that he belongs up there on Mount Rushmore? Lincoln and Joe Biden?" To which, Pelosi said, "You've got Teddy Roosevelt up there, and he's wonderful. I don't say take him down, but you can add Biden."
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