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Sadly for President Donald Trump’s most ardent fans, there’s probably no room left on Mount Rushmore.
There’s also a law on the books since 1866 that forbids placing the likeness of a living person on US currency.
But those obstacles have not stopped members of Congress from introducing legislation to honor their leader larger-than-life in stone and on legal tender. There are proposals to place Trump on the $100 bill, perhaps replacing Benjamin Franklin, or on an as-yet unprinted $250 bill. None of these ideas seem likely to become law, but they are emblematic of a trend of similar efforts to flatter the president.
Another idea formalized in an official legislative proposal would withhold funds from the Washington Metro Area Transit Authority, WMATA, until it is renamed “WMAGA.” DC’s Metrorail commuter train, better known as the Metro, would be renamed the “Trump Train.”
Sometimes, just saying MAGA doesn’t go far enough. While nobody should expect to get on the Trump Train near the White House any time soon, there’s a real possibility every new baby could get a Trump Account. An early draft of the megabill on Capitol Hill riffed on Democratic proposals to give each American baby some seed money at birth. At first, the plan was to call this money “MAGA Accounts.” The name was changed to “Trump Accounts” in the version that passed the House. We’ll see if the idea makes it through the Senate.
The president will also receive a big birthday bash at taxpayer expense. There will be a spectacular display of US military might to honor the US Army’s 250th birthday and Flag Day, which happen to coincide with Trump’s birthday on June 14.
“I view it for Flag Day, not necessarily my birthday,” Trump told NBC News in a recent interview. “Somebody put it together.”
Another proposal in Congress would make Trump’s birthday (and Flag Day) a national holiday.
There may also be a fighter jet whose name nods at Trump’s presidency.
“It’ll be known as the F-47. The generals picked a title. And it’s a beautiful number. F-47,” Trump said during an appearance in the Oval Office announcing the new contract for Boeing to build a sixth-generation fighter.
Trump, in his second term, is the 47th president.
And before you ask, no, the F-14 Tomcat did not memorialize 14th US President Franklin Pierce any more than the F-16 Fighting Falcon memorialized Abraham Lincoln.
There is at least a conversation in conservative media outlets about placing Trump on Mount Rushmore, the South Dakota rock face that honors George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Lincoln.
“A lot of people wonder: Will we ever see President Trump’s face on Mount Rushmore? What do you think?” Trump’s daughter-in-law, the Fox News host and former RNC official Lara Trump, asked Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
“Well, they certainly have room for it there,” Burgum said, despite evidence to the contrary.
The National Park Service has worked with an engineering firm in past decades to explore the structural integrity of the rock face, and there is no more carvable space, a spokesperson told the Argus Leader in 2020. And the monument is a completed work of art by the sculptor Gutzon Borglum.
During Trump’s first term, then-South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem gave him a $1,100 bust of Mount Rushmore featuring his face, knowing he’d appreciate the gesture. She’s now his homeland security secretary.
Trump’s eponymous company is pursuing golf, hotel and residential projects in far-flung locations – the Middle East, Indonesia and India. And the company that runs his social media platform bears his initials as its stock ticker.
One place that features the faces of living people on its currency is the United Kingdom, which honors its king in that way.
But Trump already does have a currency of sorts – a memecoin, which has made a few people a lot of money, including Trump. He celebrated its top investors in a controversial “personal time” event at his Trump-branded golf course earlier this month.
Another proposal on Capitol Hill would rename Dulles Airport for Trump, which would give the DC region its second airport named for a Republican. It was President Bill Clinton who signed the bipartisan legislation giving Ronald Reagan’s name to Washington National Airport in 1998. The move was controversial, but ultimately bipartisan.
From CNN’s report at the time: The Reagan Legacy Project of the Americans for Tax Reform, a conservative group, launched the airport campaign last year as part of a wider effort to put his name on buildings and his face on Mount Rushmore…
Some Democrats offered to name practically anything else for Reagan except that airport, suggesting the Pentagon or Dulles International Airport. Others suggested Reagan had been honored enough with a new office building and a new Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, both of which carry his name.
It can take a long, coordinated campaign to get something like an airport named for someone. Reagan was still alive at the time, but suffering from Alzheimer’s, and a full 10 years out of office.
Will there still be energy to name things for Trump 10 years from now?
