A clip features a camera moving slowly over a photograph of Mount Rushmore, the monumental sculpture located in the Black Hills of South Dakota that has depicted the faces of four American presidents since 1941-George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. In the finale, a graphic shows an added imaginary face, that of Donald J. Trump. The image summarizes an idea that periodically comes up again: to insert a new president into the famous rock-carved monument. Since its completion, Mount Rushmore has never seen additions to the original faces, yet with Trump’s return to the White House, the theme has come up again.
During his first term, Trump had already expressed to Kristi Noem, then Congresswoman for South Dakota and now Secretary of Homeland Security, his desire to be carved into the mountain. Noem had given him a model of the monument with his face carved on it, as if to seal a future project. Last January, a Florida congresswoman instead introduced a legislative proposal requiring the Secretary of the Interior to proceed with the carving of President Trump’s figure on Mount Rushmore. Despite this, the bill, assigned to the House Committee on Natural Resources, has yet to move forward.
Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, in an interview last March with Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, declared that “there is definitely room” for the addition of a new face, suggesting an openness toward that possibility. In truth, the authorities who manage the monument-Mount Rushmore is administered by the National Park Service-have made it clear that the sculpture is considered finished and that there is no space available for new carvings. In fact, according to an official memo, the sculpted area has been carefully examined and no suitable surfaces have been found for a further figure.
The discussion, which is still open, revolves around two fundamental issues, as summarized by the New York Times in an article by John Branch and Jeremy White: one philosophical and one technical-geological. On the cultural side, Mount Rushmore is a recognized symbol of American excellence and a monument dedicated to presidents who have marked the history of the United States. The choice of the four sculpted faces, the work of sculptor Gutzon Borglum, who directed the project for fourteen years from 1927, was carefully considered by him. The addition of an additional face thus raises questions about the meaning and compliance with the original intention.
Geologically, Mount Rushmore is a fragile and complex structure. Borglum selected the southeastern rock face for its solidity and good natural lighting. About 500,000 tons of rock were removed by dynamite to carve the faces, but the mountain has many cracks and brittleness that drastically limited the usable area. Washington’s face, the first one carved, is located about 20 feet below the original surface, while Roosevelt is as deep as 23 feet. The many changes to the original design testify to the difficulties encountered: for example, Jefferson’s face was moved several times because of fractures in the rock. Close-up photographs clearly show the fragility of the rock, making it almost impossible to add another face without compromising the stability of the monument. Borglum concluded that the usable space could hold only four faces about 18 meters high, all framed by an already imperfect and weather-worn stone.
The idea of enriching Mount Rushmore with new faces is actually not new. Before Borglum, historian Doane Robinson had envisioned a series of sculptures depicting heroes of the West such as Wild Bill Hickok and Sacagawea on the spires of the Black Hills, but Borglum preferred to pay homage to the first four presidents who founded and led the United States in its first 150 years.
With the 250th anniversary of the birth of the United States approaching, Mount Rushmore remains a landmark, but also a battleground between those who want to preserve its integrity and those who argue for a symbolic update. Dan Wenk, former superintendent of the monument from 1985 to 2001, called the idea of adding new faces similar to altering a classic work of art, such as Leonardo da Vinci’sLast Supper. Although more traditional views reject change, Wenk acknowledges that certain ideas are no longer taboo today.
There have also been discussions over the years about whether figures such as Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy or Ronald Reagan, but the proposal never got beyond the speculative stage. The current interest in including Donald Trump here, recently ranked by some historians as one of the worst presidents in American history, stands out as a provocation, but also an issue that some political components are seriously considering. Unlike presidents already carved in granite, whose historical recognition is almost unanimous, Trump represents a divisive case, but it cannot be ruled out a priori that, by exploiting his subversive style, he will succeed in promoting such an initiative. From a practical standpoint, however, geological reality is an insurmountable obstacle. As Wenk points out, “fortunately, rock reality is on our side.”
Every year about 2.5 million people visit Mount Rushmore and look at the faces carved in stone, trying to imagine where a fifth face could possibly be added. Many geologists and scholars, however, continue to confirm that the feat is not feasible, both for structural reasons and out of respect for the monument’s history. The debate remains open, but the mountain, at least for now, retains its form unchanged.
|
|
| Trump wants to join the four presidents at Mount Rushmore |
Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.
