In an old post from July 5, 2020, I was doing a post-mortem on Donald and Melania’s appearance at Mt. Rushmore the previous day, where he gave one of his screeds dressed as a speech in front of 7500 maskless disciples who thumbed their noses at the pandemic in order to come and listen to their fearless leader spend who knows how long spewing more Milleresque poison.
I added at the end that Gutzon Borglum, the brainchild of the landmark, was associated with the KKK. This has gotten me thinking about the messiness of our history and how we grow up learning only parts of stories about places like Mt. Rushmore— how the local native American tribes, for example, didn’t want a gigantic monument to Manifest Destiny and four white guys, two of whom were slave holders, emblazoned on the side of a mountain in what they considered sacred land.
That whole scene from six years ago was surreal, and now Trump is back, elected to office for a second time, and still dropping hints about wanting to have his face added to the four who are already there.
Sure, why not? It’s not even ridiculous anymore. It actually makes sense, if one understands such a thing to be just the latest attempt at distraction, another tactic that he hopes will get us off the Epstein scent.
Or maybe he’s finally going off the deep end.
3 Cents' 