Sen. Tommy Tuberville has been mercilessly mocked for a thinly veiled attempt to suck up to President Trump.
On Presidents Day, the Alabama Republican, who has blamed Trump’s cankles on “radical” leftists, posted an image of Mount Rushmore with the president’s face digitally added.
“As we reflect on our nation’s greatest presidents, it’s hard to think of a President who has been more influential in modern history than President Trump. Petition to rename today as ‘President Donald J. Trump Day’?” the football coach turned Alabama governor hopeful said in the X post.
Joking or not, his critics went scorched earth on the idea. “Get off your knees Tommy. You’re pathetic,” Democratic Rep. Brendan Boyle responded.
Author Kirk Walden took issue with the bootlicking coming on a day meant to honor Founding Father George Washington. “Coach, no. Just no,” he pleaded.
“We’re talking about George Washington. Who was willing to give his life for an idea that would change civilization forever. Who led our country from nothing to a Constitution. Let’s never gloss over his name.”
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof also shared some historical context. “Chairman Mao was also surrounded by bootlickers,” he said.
Journalist John Harwood put it plainly, writing: “Hard to think of a senator more embarrassing in modern history than Tommy Tuberville.”
The GOP has long mused about adding Trump’s face alongside the sculpted heads of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.
A mere week into Trump 2.0, his top aide Corey Lewandowski raised the possibility as a more constitutional alternative to giving Trump a third term.
“Some really smart congressman should go and say, Donald Trump’s face on Mount Rushmore,” Lewandowski told Benny Johnson, host of The Benny Show, in January last year.
“What are we waiting on?” he added.
This wasn’t the first time Trump’s team got serious about getting the twice-impeached president added to the iconic American landmark.
The New York Times reported in 2020 that Trump’s aides had reached out to then-South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem in 2019 to inquire about the process for adding another face to the monument.
In 2018, Noem, who is now Trump’s embattled secretary of Homeland Security, revealed that appearing on Mount Rushmore is one of the president’s dreams.
Trump allegedly told her during a meeting with him in the Oval Office. “I started laughing,” she said. “He wasn’t laughing, so he was totally serious.”
Fox News host Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, inquired about the subject in March last year while interviewing Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. “Well, they certainly have room for it there,” he said.
The National Park Service said back in 2020 that there are no secure surfaces left on the rock face to make additions, reported South Dakota’s Argus Leader.
And Trump might find pushback from the public, too, as his favorability rating continues to slide. Three recent polls suggest Trump’s standing is slipping, with the latest finding that 46 percent of respondents think Joe Biden did a better job than Trump, compared with 40 percent who favor Trump’s second term.
The YouGov/Economist survey follows a Harvard CAPS/Harris poll conducted Jan. 28–29, which found that 51 percent of registered voters said Trump was doing a worse job, and a Rasmussen Reports poll from Feb. 2–4 showing 48 percent of probable voters believed Biden did a better job, versus 40 percent who preferred Trump.
