TSR Politics: I mean Mount Rushmore was never for us anyway but the prospect of Donald Trump being added to it has some people upset.
The New York Times released a report claiming a White House aide reached out to South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem’s office to see what the process was to add additional presidents to Mount Rushmore. In private, the Times reports Noem actually greeted Trump with a 4-foot replica of Mount Rushmore that included him as a fifth president to the landmark.
Literally after Trump tweeted a picture of himself in front of the national monument in which he positioned himself as a fifth president, he fired up his Twitter fingers to call out the New York Times report as “fake news,” but then said the suggestion of him being added to Mount Rushmore wasn’t a bad idea.
“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,” Trump tweeted.
Even though CNN said Trump claims he never raised the possibility, they dropped some receipts to show that he actually has.
CNN said Trump has in fact raised the topic with Noem before and was serious about it.
“He said, ‘Kristi, come on over here. Shake my hand,'” Noem told the Sioux Falls Argus-Leader about a meeting she had with Trump in the Oval Office. “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?’. “I started laughing. He wasn’t laughing, so he was totally serious.”
Then Trump said the following at a campaign rally in July 2017.
“Every single president on Mt. Rushmore — I’d ask whether or not you think I will someday be on Mt. Rushmore. But here’s the problem: If i did it, joking, totally joking, the fake news media would say he believes he should be on Mt. Rushmore. So I won’t say it.”
While the process remains unclear, I guess we’ll have to see if Trump will be added to Mount Rushmore or if it’s just a presidential pipe dream.
We’ll keep you posted.
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