There's no room for Trump's face on Mount Rushmore, despite MAGA push

Some MAGA supporters want to add Donald Trump to Mount Rushmore but there is no room.

KEYSTONE, S.D. — From his real estate developments to his golf courses, President Donald Trump is known for adding his name to his properties. Now, some of his supporters want to add his likeness to one of the most iconic monuments in the country: Mount Rushmore.

Just days after Trump took office for his second term, one of his supporters in Congress introduced a bill to do just that. While the legislation from Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., has not advanced in the Capitol, there is an even more difficult challenge ahead for the bill: Even if the measure passed, the famous mountain does not have enough rock that is suitable to be carved for Trump’s — or anyone else’s — face.

“It comes down to the geology, the engineering,” said Paul Nelson, a retired engineer who oversaw the rock monitoring system at Mount Rushmore. “It just can’t be done.”

The mountain’s physical limitations were well known to lead sculptor Gutzon Borglum, as he and his son had to adapt their plans to what was feasible with the stone during construction of Mount Rushmore in South Dakota's Black Hills from 1927 to 1941. Before he had even finished, Borglum wrote in May 1936 that the “stone limitations are so serious, that I doubt if it would be possible to change the composition, which is fixed, in any way to include a fifth head.”

That has not stopped supporters of Trump from floating the idea of his head on the monument.