The White House has asked questions about adding Trump to Mount Rushmore

• Last year, a White House aide asked the office of South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem how more presidents can add to Mount Rushmore, The New York Times reported Saturday, with an anonymous source familiar with the chat.
• Gov. Name played against President Trump’s interest in the monument in July, and greeted him with a four-foot replica of Mount Rushmore with his face added to it.
• Nome recalls her first meeting with Trump in the Oval Office: “I said, ‘Mr. President, you have to come to South Dakota sometimes. We have Mount Rushmore.’ And he goes, ‘Do you know it’s my dream to have my face on Mount Rushmore?’ “
• It is not possible to add another president to the monument, according to South Dakota paper Argus Leader.
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It is not possible to cut a face of a fifth president in the National Memorial of Mount Rushmore, South Dakota – there is no safe surface left, according to the National Park Service.

But that did not stop the Trump administration from asking.

Last year, a White House aide contacted the office of the governor of South Dakota, the Republican nominee Christi, to inquire about the process of adding more faces, according to The New York Times. The Times quoted a Republican official familiar with the conversation.

Trump’s interest in Mount Rushmore, and his desire to etch in the four existing presidents, is no surprise to Noem, who says he raised it at her first meeting in the Oval Office.

“He said, ‘Christ, come here. Shake my hand,'” Noem told the South Dakota Argus Leader. “I shook his hand and I said, ‘Bad. President, sometimes you should come to South Dakota. We have Mount Rushmore. ‘ And he goes, ‘Do you know that it is my dream to have my face on Mount Rushmore?’ “I started laughing,” she said, “he did not laugh, that he was quite serious.”

Noem, a close ally of President Trump’s, has since played into that dream, at least with the power she has.

When Trump visited the monument in early July for an Independence Day speech, she greeted him with a four-foot model of Mount Rushmore with his face in it, in a Times report, citing a source familiar with the exchange .

The news came amid rumors that Noem vice president Mike Pence could take over as Trump’s running mate in the 2020 election, although The Times quoted a source as saying that Noem had already indicated to Pence that they would not run for him to replace.

To be clear, adding another face to Mount Rushmore is not possible. While it looks like there’s a place to the right of George Washington – that’s actually where the sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, intended to place Thomas Jefferson – the rock face is unstable.

Noem joked with Trump funny that there is another option, reports Argus Leader.

“Come pick a mountain,” she told him.