Former President Donald J. Trump has voiced support for efforts to carve his face onto the iconic Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota, endorsing a campaign in this regard on his Truth Social platform. He posted the link to an online petition that solicits support for adding his face to the iconic monument, along with the existing figures of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump posted the screenshot of a tweet by self-proclaimed ‘Trump loyalist’ Roger Stone, saying, ‘It’s time to put President Trump on Mount Rushmore!’ The activist added that “Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna has sponsored the legislation to put our 45th & 47th President on this National Memorial,” and urged people to sign the online petition.
President Trump thanked Anna Paulina Luna for sponsoring the legislation and posted the link to the petition, although he didn’t post any appeal to sign it.
The Congresswoman introduced the bill in January 2025 in Congress. The legislation directs the Secretary of the Interior to arrange for the carving of President Donald J. Trump’s face on the monument. While the bill has not advanced significantly in Congress, MAGA Trump supporters continue to push for its implementation.
However, geological and engineering experts have consistently stated that adding another figure to Mount Rushmore is physically impossible. The granite mountain, carved between 1927 and 1941 under sculptor Gutzon Borglum, has no suitable remaining stone for additional large-scale work. Borglum himself noted in 1936 that “stone limitations are so serious” that altering the composition for a fifth head would be improbable.
Retired engineer Paul Nelson, who monitored the site’s rock stability, said that fractured and soft granite poses risks, and exposing competent rock for new carving could destabilise existing features. Former Mount Rushmore Superintendent Dan Wenk compared the monument with classical art that can’t be changed. He said, “Would you add another figure to da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper?’ … It can’t be done. It doesn’t matter how worthy someone is—if the rock is not there, you can’t carve them.”
While experts maintain there is definitely no room on the stone due to these irreversible limitations, proponents of the proposal reject it and claim that it remains possible through creative engineering or alternative approaches. The petition also claims that Trump’s face could be added to the monument using modern technology.
It states, “Those critics who claim that adding the image of President Trump could “endanger” the faces of the other great American Presidents on Mount Rushmore are WRONG. In fact, design and construction technology is now so advanced that President Trump’s image can be added to this historic monument without any danger to the existing monument.”
The Mount Rushmore National Memorial includes sculptures of four presidents carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills near Keystone, South Dakota. The 60-foot-high (18 m) carvings of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln were completed in 1941 to represent the first 150 years of American history. The original plan was to carve the figures from head to waist, but they were limited to only the faces due to a lack of funds.
This is not the first time there have been demands to add more faces to the monument. In 1937, before the completion of the sculpture, there was a petition to add women’s rights activist Susan B. Anthony, which was rejected. After its completion in 1941, the sculptors said that the remaining rock was not suitable for additional carvings. This was supported by an engineering firm tasked with monitoring the stability of the rock in 1989.
There were proposals to add John F. Kennedy after his assassination in 1963, and Ronald Reagan in 1985 and 1999, but they never materialised. When Barack Obama was asked about the potential addition of his face in 2008, he joked that his ears were too large. He had said, “I don’t think my ears would fit; there’s only so much rock up there,” acknowledging lack of enough suitable rock for additional carving.
Donald Trump is the only president to support the demand to add his own face. However, that is the usual nature of the current US president, who has been demanding the Nobel Peace Prize, and credit for ending all wars in the world.
