Published 19:24 IST, August 10th 2020
Trump denies report about suggesting his head on Mt Rushmore, immediately contradicts it
Trump called the report “fake news” but immediately went to suggest that it was a “good idea” given his so-called accomplishments in the first 3.5 years.
US President Donald Trump dismissed a New York Times report that claimed a White House aide had reached out to South Dakota’s governor to know about the process to add another President to Mount Rushmore. Trump called the report “fake news” but immediately went to suggest that it was a “good idea” given his so-called accomplishments in the first three and a half years.
Trump’s fixation with Mount Rushmore is no secret and but the US President, in public, has generally insisted that he’s joking. Artist Gutzon Borglum chose to etch the faces of former US Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln saying they “represented the most important events” in US history.
Trump's 'dream'
While has denied the reports, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem had said in the past that the US President personally raised the issue with her when she was running for the office in 2018. She told Argus Leader that Trump brought up the idea when she went to meet him at 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?’ ” Noem told the newspaper.
Mount Rushmore National Memorial is carved into Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills region of South Dakota, which has 60-feet-high granite faces depicting the four former US presidents. After terming the report as “fake news”, Trump tweeted a photoshopped picture of him standing in front of the memorial, indicating his fixation with the place. Twitter users said that only Trump can deny a story while confirming it at the same time. Trump's approval rating has declined after his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and upcoming presidential elections might put an end to his "dream".
Updated 19:23 IST, August 10th 2020