KEYSTONE, S.D. — Known for prominently featuring his name on his properties, President Donald Trump might soon see his image on one of America’s most famous monuments: Mount Rushmore. This idea isn’t Trump’s but rather comes from some of his enthusiastic supporters.

Shortly after Trump began his second presidential term, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna from Florida proposed a bill aiming to add Trump’s face to the monument. However, the bill has not progressed in Congress, and even if it did, another significant hurdle remains: Mount Rushmore simply doesn’t have the right kind of rock available for additional carvings.

Paul Nelson, a retired engineer who previously monitored the rock’s stability, emphasized, “It boils down to the geology and engineering; it’s just not feasible.”

These physical constraints were well understood by Gutzon Borglum, Mount Rushmore’s original sculptor. When working on the monument in the Black Hills from 1927 to 1941 with his son, they had to tailor their creative vision to suit the stone’s limitations. In May 1936, Borglum acknowledged that these “stone limitations” were so substantial that the addition of a fifth figure was likely impossible.

That has not stopped supporters of Trump from floating the idea of his head on the monument.

Despite these challenges, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum suggested there might still be space when speaking with Lara Trump on Fox News about the possibility of Trump being immortalized on the mountain.

The National Park Service declined to comment.

Trump previously addressed this notion in August 2020, countering claims that his aides had contacted then-Governor of South Dakota, Kristi Noem, regarding the steps needed to add the likeness of another president to the monument. Noem now serves as Trump’s homeland security secretary.

“Never suggested it although, based on all of the many things accomplished during the first 3 1/2 years, perhaps more than any other Presidency, sounds like a good idea to me!” Trump said on what was then called Twitter.

Trump is not the first president to have his supporters believe he should be physically represented on par with George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

After Ronald Reagan’s death in 2004, there were efforts to memorialize him on the monument. And even before Mount Rushmore was completed, first lady Eleanor Roosevelt advocated for adding suffragist Susan B. Anthony.

“It’s a wonderful thing to speculate about, who could or should be on Mount Rushmore, but it can’t be done,” said Dan Wenk, who was the superintendent at Mount Rushmore for more than a decade. “Would you add another figure to da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper?’ I don’t think so. You don’t change great art.”

Wenk said that while it may look like there is space next to Lincoln or Washington, the rock is “not suitable for carving,” as it is “very fractured, it’s very soft.”

That has been true since the beginning. Carving for Jefferson’s face initially started to Washington’s left but had to be moved to his right to find stone that was acceptable. Any new carving could jeopardize the already present fractures, Nelson said.

“And so if you’re going to do any other carvings on the surface, you have to remove a lot of rock to get down to the competent rock, and you run the risk of maybe mobilizing some fractures,” he said. “So, no, I wouldn’t want to be messing with Mount Rushmore.”

Aside from the physical capabilities, some of the 2 million tourists per year who visit the monument recently shared their views about who is worthy of being included in the sculpture.

“I think history is going to show that he’s in the same pantheon,” Robert Thomas, a tourist from Missouri, said of Trump.

“I just think it’s a little ridiculous,” said another tourist, Susan Davis. “Tell him to get his own mountain, carve his own image on it.”

Wenk, though, emphasized that “at the end of the day, it can’t be done.”

“It doesn’t matter how worthy someone is — if the rock is not there, you can’t carve them.”