The majority of Fox News’ “Outnumbered” panel on Monday couldn’t get enough of the suggestion of adding President Donald Trump’s image to Mount Rushmore.
Co-host Harris Faulkner fawningly claimed “a growing number of conservatives are pushing to add Trump to the legendary monument” in South Dakota’s Black Hills region because they think “he’s already done enough to be immortalized alongside George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.”
Former Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), a contributor on the conservative network, said, “If there’s room up there, I think it’d be great.”
“I think what Donald Trump has done, and is in the process of doing, is transforming the United States of America and putting America first,” he added. “And I think America loves it, and I think there’s a great case for it.”
Co-host Kayleigh McEnany, who served as Trump’s White House press secretary during his first term, said she was “fascinated” by the proposal and argued “it would be epic.”
McEnany also expressed her support for a petition in Congress to rename Washington Dulles International Airport as Donald Trump International Airport.
Emily Compagno, a fellow co-host, wasn’t sold on the Rushmore proposal, though. “I despise Mount Rushmore. I hate that we chiseled humans’ faces into the mountains,” she told the panel. Instead, Compagno suggested Trump’s face be put on currency — like a quarter — and said she loved the idea of the airport rebrand.
Contributor Lisa Boothe, meanwhile, noted the mountain isn’t actually suitable for further carving, but that she would endorse the airport rename also.
Trump himself has long talked about his image being immortalized on the rock.
“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, OK? I won’t say it,” Trump told a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, in 2017.
In 2020, though, The New York Times reported that a White House aide had contacted then-South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) to ask about the logistics and possibility of another portrait being added at the park.
When Trump later that year visited the monument, his now-Homeland Security Secretary Noem actually gave him a 4-foot replica of Mount Rushmore that featured his face.
Noem at the time said private donations of $1,100 paid for the bust and that she tries to give gifts “that somebody wants to receive” and that she knew “that was something that he would find special.”