Some time later, he tweeted out of some sort of denial of a New York Times report that he had spoken to Gov. South Dakota. Christ Mention the possibility of adding his own visa to that of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.
That Trump says: a) he never raised the possibility with Noem added to Mount Rushmore, but b) thinks it sounds like a great idea!
Let’s take the first point, you, first.
We know that Trump did indeed raise the issue with Noem and that he was serious about it.
“He said, ‘Christ, come here. Shake my hand,'” Noem told the Sioux Falls Argus Leader about a meeting with Trump in the Oval Office. “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. He did not laugh, so he was completely serious. “
Then there is
this one of a Trump campaign rally in July 2017:
“Every President on Mt. Rushmore – I would like to ask if you think I’ll be on Mt. Rushmore someday. But here’s the problem: If I did, joke, joke completely, the fake news media would say he’s thinking that he should go to Rushmore. I will not say that. “
He’s not kidding. Remember that Trump always uses the I-am-just-kidding-and-you-media-stiff-not-get-it statement when he says something that a) he means and b) he wants to give himself the opportunity to walk away from. But he did not joke. Not at all.
Do not take my word for it. Take Noem’s. Wer!
This is from the Times story that ran on Sunday (bolding is me):
“Introducing Mr. Trump against the flooded backdrop of his sliced predecessors, the governor responded to the president’s desire for adulation by noting that in just three days, more than 125,000 people had registered for only 7,500 seats; they compared him with Theodore Roosevelt, a leader who “braves the dangers of the arena”; and they mimic the president’s rhetoric by mocking Protestants, who they say are trying to discredit the country’s founders.
“In private, the efforts to charm Mr. Trump were more, according to a person familiar with the episode: Mrs. Noem greeted him with a four-foot replica of Mount Rushmore that included a fifth presidency: his. “
She had made a replica of Mount Rushmore with Trump’s face on it! Repeat: She had made a replica of Mount Rushmore with Trump’s face on it!
Is that the kind of thing you would do if you thought the President of the United States was joking? Especially after you had a conversation with him about his “dream” added to Mount Rushmore, a conversation you told the media was “totally serious?”
Of course not!
Consider what we already know about Trump:
1) He is an irreplaceable good who believes that the way you stay relevant – and make sure you are remembered – is to put your name (as a face!) On everything you can.
2) He has said several times that he is up there with the best presidents ever. “I’ve always said I can be more president than any president in history, except for Honest Abe Lincoln when he wears the hat,” Trump said in 2019. In a speech to the United Nations in 2018, Trump that “in less than two years, my administration has done more than almost any administration in the history of our country.”
Ask yourself this now: Is there EVERY chance that Trump was anything but deadly serious when he told Noem that it was his ‘dream’ to be on Mount Rushmore? And that, if it’s ANY way can it happen that he would jump at the chance?
(Sidebar: There’s really no more room for Trump – or any other presidency – on Mount Rushmore. “There’s no more carvable space up on the sculpture,” said Maureen McGee-Ballinger, a public information officer at Mount Rushmore. told the Argus Leader. “If you look at the sculpture, it appears that there may be some space next to Washington or right next to Lincoln. You can either see the rock that is outside the statue (on the right) , that is an optical illusion, if on the left side, that is not carvable. “)
Of course there are other mountains …
I child – but not quite! From his interest in buying Greenland to his pressure on a military parade in downtown Washington, Trump has tried (or at least considered) doing things that presidents just, well, do not do. Given all that history, you would be crazy to think that Trump might not be looking seriously at getting his face in a mountain somewhere in America.
In fact, Noem Trump has already said so much.
“Come pick out a mountain,” she told him during that Oval Office visit.
.
