NY Times: Trump wants face on Mount Rushmore [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• President Donald Trump denounced reports on Sunday that his office had reached South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem’s office that he wanted to have his image carved at Mount Rushmore.
• Despite saying the reports were “fake news,” Trump said several times previously that he aspired to have his image sculpted at the monument.
• Noem has been seen as a rising star in the GOP, though a White House official said that the idea of replacing Vice President Mike Pence with her was not in the works.

On Sunday night, President Donald Trump debunked reports that the White House got in touch with Republican South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem regarding his dream to include his face at Mount Rushmore.

The New York Times published a report early Sunday that in 2019, a White House official held a discussion with Noem’s office regarding the addition of new presidents on Mount Rushmore. 

The report was sensationalized by other news outlets which include CNN.

Retweeting CNN’s headline, Trump described the report as “fake news,” but added that it was a good idea.

“This is Fake News by the failing @nytimes & bad ratings @CNN. Never suggested it although, based on all of the many things accomplished during the first 3 1/2 years, perhaps more than any other Presidency, sounds like a good idea to me!,” he tweeted.

According to Noem, when she was still a congressman in 2018, Trump told her he aspired to have his face carved out on the monument. She said that the president was “totally serious” about it.

“He said, ‘Kristi, come on over here. Shake my hand,’” Noem said at the time. 

“I shook his hand, and I said, ‘Mr. President, you should come to South Dakota sometime. We have Mount Rushmore.’ And he goes, ‘Do you know it’s my dream to have my face on Mount Rushmore?’ “

During the same year at a Youngstown, Ohio rally, Trump said, “I’d ask whether or not you think I will someday be on Mount Rushmore, but here’s the problem: If I did it joking, totally joking, having fun, the fake news media will say ‘he believes he should be on Mount Rushmore,’ so I won’t say it, okay? I won’t say it.”

When Trump made a state visit in South Dakota for a July Fourth event, Noem presented her with a four-foot monument replica that has his image, the Times reported. A White House official made it clear, though, that Mount Rushmore is not under Noem’s jurisdiction since it’s a federal monument.

According to the Times, the governor met with Vice President Mike Pence recently where she said to him that she would be on all-out support for his and Trump’s reelection, gesturing her intention not to replace him as Trump’s VP.

Noem has been seen as a rising figure in the GOP recently, though a White House aide told the news outlet that replacing Pence with her was not being discussed.

The Hill has contacted Noem’s office for a request for comment.

Source: The Hill