Mount Rushmore experts reveal if Trump can be added to the iconic monument - as sculptor's granddaughter gives blunt response
Donald Trump 's dream of one day being carved into Mount Rushmore is unlikely to ever become a reality due to concerns the sculpture could collapse if it's tampered with.
The four faces carved into the South Dakota mountain - George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln - are among the most popular American leaders to this day.
Trump's ambitions to join them on the iconic sculpture would be hugely divisive, but the president theoretically could direct his administration to begin work carving him in.
Robin Borglum Kennedy, the granddaughter of the iconic artist Gutzon Borglum who dreamed up and executed the sculpture, believes it is no place for Trump - or any other living president.
'It was conceived as a tribute to the ideals of America,' she told the New York Times.
'Not to any one man.'
Borglum Kennedy believes Mount Rushmore is a historical memorial to America, rather than a tribute to the politics of the men who her grandfather chose to include.
And experts have warned any new additions risks destroying the four monuments which already exist among the cracks and fractures deep within the stone.
Geomechanical engineer Paul Nelson, who worked on the monitoring system at Mount Rushmore, warned: 'One of the concerns about an additional face is that you could activate these fractures.
'If you remove material, you could be removing support.'
Nelson noted it would be 'extremely difficult, if not impossible, to carve an additional face on Mounth Rushmore', warning as an example that a new face could cost Lincoln's nose.
While there is technically plenty of room for another face, the reality is the rock is so fragile it mightn't be possible.
While much of the mountain is granite, there are pockets of pegmatite crystal, rose quartz and schist which are unsuitable for carving.
Borglum had to abandon his plans of carving torsos for each of the former presidents due to the instability of much of the rock, and even stopped works on one of the faces and moved its location after it was determined the area to the side of Lincoln was unstable.
In all, he changed his initial plans nine times to work around the challenges of the rock.
Even within the faces there are deep chasms and cracks which had to be delicately worked around and left in place to avoid risking the integrity of the entire work.
Former superintendent of Mount Rushmore National Memorial Dan Wenk said: 'You wouldn't add another face to Borglum's Mount Rushmore just like you wouldn't add one to da Vinci's 'Last Supper'.'
'But I recognize that these types of ideas are no longer off the table.
'Fortunately, from my view, and not just for Trump but anybody else, they're fighting against the reality of the rock.'
Trump first expressed his dreams of one day being memorialized on Mount Rushmore during his first term in a conversation with then South Dakota representative Kristi Noem.
He said it was his 'dream' to be included on the mountain. In response, Noem gave Trump a model sculpture of Mount Rushmore with his face included on it.
But the idea resurfaced when he was reelected when MAGA congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna filed legislation to make the change.
The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources.
The National Park Service has shot down any ambitions to expand the sculpture, arguing in a statement: 'The carved portion of Mount Rushmore has been thoroughly evaluated, and there are no viable locations left for additional carvings.'
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"We just need to now think of it through a wildfire lens." -- For essential climate news and hopeful developments to your inbox, sign up to the Future Earth newsletter, while The Essential List delivers a handpicked selection of features and insights twice a week. For more science, technology, environment and health stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram.
