South Dakota governor gifted Trump with a statue of Mount Rushmore

On Sep 7, 2021

A four-foot replica of Mount Rushmore with Donald Trump’s face etched on it, which was gifted to him by South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, has been pictured for the first time.

Noem presented the former president with the sculpture after he made a speech at the site on July 3, 2020, as part of the state’s Fourth of July celebrations.

The replica was never revealed to the public and little was known about it other than a disclosure filing with the Office of Government Ethics that suggest it cost $1,100. Noem’s office has said that it was funded by private donors, not taxpayers’ money.

The existence of the gift was first reported by the New York Times four days after Trump’s 2020 speech, but a photo of the sculpture showing Trump’s face etched to Abraham Lincoln’s has not been seen until now.

Trump said in a tweet about a month after his speech that it ‘sounds like a good idea’ to put him on Mount Rushmore, after the Times claimed that a White House aide reached out to Noem to discuss the plan.

The president, who has long floated the idea, denied that he had ever requested having himself added to the monument. But, he said, it was a fine idea, given his accomplishments.

Former President Donald Trump was gifted a replica of Mount Rushmore by South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem. Its cost was set at $1,100 and it was funded by private donors, not taxpayers’ money

One of Donald Trump’s reported secrets is that he’s always wanted to feature on the memorial

Mount Rushmore was started in 1927, and never completed. Work ended with the death of sculptor Gutzon Borglum in 1941. Borglum chose to carve the heads of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln to represent the nation’s birth, growth, development and preservation, respectively.

Mount Rushmore is asked ‘daily’ to add presidents to the sculpture – but it’s ‘impossible’ because there is no more space

Mount Rushmore was started in 1927, and never completed. Work ended with the death of sculptor Gutzon Borglum in 1941.

Maureen McGee-Ballinger, public information officer at Mount Rushmore, told The Argus Leader last year that workers are asked daily whether any president can be added.

For years, people have suggested Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, among others. A website has been set up advocating for Obama.

McGee-Ballinger said it was impossible.

‘There is no more carvable space up on the sculpture,’ she said.

‘When you are looking on the sculpture, it appears there might be some space on the left next to Washington or right next to Lincoln.

‘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.’

After his July speech at Mount Rushmore last year, Trump tweeted that it was a ‘good idea’ to have his face added to the landmark on the Lakota people’s sacred Black Hills.

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