No one, and we mean nobody will ever forget Trump’s speech at Mount Rushmore on July 4th 2020. The speech was peak Trump.

It was given on sacred ground, twice over. The black hills region had long been considered sacred to the Native American tribes in the area and then the ground became sacred U.S. civic ground, much like the Lincoln Memorial. Trump gave the speech during the beginning of an epidemic with which the country was just starting to grapple and it looked like they literally shoved people in together as close as possible, like a middle finger to the libs.

It had a young, attractive, and highly power-hungry, woman governor in Kristi Noem who knew just how to suck up to Trump and was willing to debase herself. Even the fireworks display was absurdly overdone on a federal budget and… a terrible wildfire risk. It was just all so… no one’s going to forget it.

Late in the summer, on August 8th, the NYT had a story about the Trump-Noem-Pence dynamic which buried the lede, in our opinion, and we put out a story focused solely on the fact that Trump’s White House actually reached out to Gov. Noem to ask about what steps might be taken to put Trump on Mount Rushmore. Our story went more than a little viral because the whole thing is so f’ing stupid about four times over, given that the Trump White House wouldn’t even know that the federal government, not South Dakota, oversees the land. Additionally, a normal president’s face would go pale and shake if someone even brought up the idea of doing such a thing.

But Trump wanted his head on that fcking rock somehow, and the rumor was that Kristi Noem – the rabid self-promoter, gave Trump a replica with his head etched into the side. The “rumor” or “anecdote” had been just that, for over a year. We are terrified to report (from the Daily Beast and Uproxx) that Trump actually owns a hand-carved Mount Rushmore replica with his head on it. Does that not sound as if “our” president is/was about eight years old? Humiliating.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s strange gift to Donald Trump has never been seen. Until now. https://t.co/L5ZvoY1PSa

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) September 5, 2021

From Uproxx: The piece reveals that not one, but three models of the modified Mount Rushmore exist, with two going to “donors” who helped fund its creation. The sculpting process is detailed as well, and it’s not a surprise the two people who worked on the model — Lee Leuning and Sherri Treeby — are Trump supporters who were thrilled to work on it for the now-former president.

Do notice, Trump’s head is, far and away, the biggest and most prominent, practically covering Lincoln (Southerners would be happy). He also looks like a dick, which means they somehow captured his essence. This was an excellent product, worth having.

There are, perhaps, about a dozen adults on Earth that would love to own their own hand-sculpted replica of Mount Rushmore with their head on it. It is probably a good idea to acknowledge that this is just one level below putting sculpting Trump on a liberal cross. We all agree, right? Except don’t “assume” anything yet – even about the cross – because this sculpture had been kept secret, or at least unverified, right up until now:

Everyone involved was apparently asked to remain quiet about their involvement, which is probably why we haven’t seen photos of Trump grafted onto another work of art until now. But the sculptors were told that he “loved” the piece because, well, of course he did. And the sculptors are really big fans of Mount Rushmore in general, which despite its many troubled ties to racism doesn’t seem to bother them as much as the fact that they didn’t get an invite to last summer’s fireworks spectacular.

Who says he doesn’t have one of himself on a cross? You can’t prove he doesn’t.

This is all too perfect. Trump and Noem left the sculptors standing outside the doors, not invited to be with the big crowd for the speech, just “help.” The symbolism is breathtaking. Indeed, this is so symbolically perfect that this entire story has turned all 360 degrees. It is absolutely wonderful that Trump owns a hand-sculpted replica of him on Mount Rushmore, and entirely appropriate.

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