Legislation to Put Depiction of Trump on Mt. Rushmore is Misguided

Legislation introduced by U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, (R-Florida) to put a depiction of President Donald Trump on Mount Rushmore in South Dakota is misguided, but it is in alignment with the mountain's -- and Trump's -- shameful history with respect to diversity and inclusion.
The Mount Rushmore Monument, famous for its depiction of former U.S. Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln carved into rock, is 81 years old. The U.S. government had promised the land around Mount Rushmore to the Sioux people in an 1868 agreement but seized the land within the decade despite the document. To this day, the Sioux Indians do not accept this loss of territory.
Coincidentally, Trump has threatened use military force to put the Panama Canal under control of the United States, despite a longstanding agreement that makes the canal an operating entity completely separate from the United States.
Gutzon Borglum sculpted Mount Rushmore. He also sculpted a monument to the defeated Confederacy, which seceded from the Union and fought the Civil War to preserve slavery, at Stone Mountain, Georgia. He is reputed to have been involved with the Ku Klux Klan, although never proven to be a member.
Coincidentally, in 1973, the Justice Department sued real estate tycoon Donald Trump and his father. who was once arrested at a Ku Klux Klan rally, for their alleged refusal to rent apartments in predominantly white buildings to Black tenants. Testimony showed that applications filed by Black apartment seekers were marked with a “C” for “colored.” The lawsuit ended in a settlement in which the Trumps acknowledged they “failed and neglected” to comply with the Fair Housing Act.
In the 1990s, Atlantic City casino mogul Donald Trump frequently cast doubt about the legitimacy of Indian tribes seeking to build casinos in the New York area, citing their dark skin as evidence they were faking their ancestry. “They don’t look like Indians to me, and they don’t look like Indians to Indians, and a lot of people are laughing at it,” Donald Trump said of the Mashantucket Pequots who operated Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut during testimony before Congress in 1993. Tribe leaders at the time called out the remarks as racist. The National Indian Gaming Association filed a Federal Communications Commission complaint after Donald Trump made similar remarks on Don Imus’ talk radio show.
Donald Trump's legacy -- whatever it may or may not eventually be -- will forever be linked to a disregard of racial equality, as will that of Mount Rushmore.
Kristi Noem, who was confirmed as Trump’s pick for U.S. Homeland Security Secretary, gave Trump a bust of Mount Rushmore that included his face in 2020 when she was governor of South Dakota. This is as close to the real Mount Rushmore that a depiction of Trump should ever get.