Overview

• Rep. Anna Paulina Luna’s H.R.792, introduced in January to direct the Interior Department to have Donald Trump carved on Mount Rushmore, remains stalled in the House Natural Resources Committee.
• Engineers and former park leaders say the site’s fractured and soft granite makes adding a fifth face infeasible and poses risks to the existing sculptures.
• Retired rock-monitoring engineer Paul Nelson says it “can’t be done,” warning that reaching competent stone would require removing large amounts of rock and could mobilize fractures.
• Mount Rushmore sculptor Gutzon Borglum wrote in 1936 that severe stone limitations likely precluded a fifth head, a constraint that also forced Jefferson’s face to be relocated during construction.
• Interior Secretary Doug Burgum suggested on Fox News that there is room, but the National Park Service declined to comment and the proposal has not progressed beyond advocacy.