John,
From the earliest days, Americans have rejected turning the presidency into a throne. George Washington stepped down after two terms, refusing to be treated as a king. And when John Adams suggested such grandiose titles as “His Elective Majesty,” “His Highness,” or “His MIghtiness,” his ideas were laughed out of the room.
The message was clear: in a democracy, the president is not a ruler to be glorified, but a servant of the people. Our founders rejected royal pomp and aristocratic privilege precisely because they knew how quickly it could erode self-government. The glorification of any sitting president runs directly against the grain of our history.
But today, that hard-won principle is under threat. A slew of GOP bills would put Trump’s face on U.S. currency, slap his name on airports, transit systems, and even the Kennedy Center, and declare his birthday a national holiday. Trump loyalist Rep. Andy Ogles called it “essential” to carve Trump’s face on Mount Rushmore -- to announce “America’s Golden Age.”
Sign the petition: Tell Congress to oppose all efforts to put Trump on Mount Rushmore, money, airports, and other national landmarks!
Such unbridled adulation is not patriotism. It is authoritarian pageantry. And due to Trump’s petty love of fatuous flattery, it has become a matter of habit -- and necessity -- for those who seek to win the President’s favor.
But sitting presidents do not belong on money, monuments, or airports -- least of all Trump, who has repeatedly defied the rule of law and attacked the foundations of democracy. Seeking to elevate him in these ways betrays Washington’s vision of the presidency and welcomes the ridicule of Adams’s royal pretensions.
The push to put Trump on Mount Rushmore is especially grotesque given the site’s history: carved into the sacred Black Hills, stolen from the Lakota, by a sculptor who had ties to the Ku Klux Klan. Adding Trump’s face would deepen, not heal, that injustice. And like his proposed military parades, these monuments to Trump would not honor America -- they would dishonor it, reducing our democracy to the vanity of one man.
We cannot allow Republicans to use the machinery of government to glorify Trump. Presidents are public servants, not idols. That is the lesson of Washington’s restraint, and of America’s rejection of aristocratic titles. To forget this crucial distinction now would be to invite in a “golden age” of rule by a despot.
Reject all efforts and funding to glorify Trump on Mount Rushmore, currency, and public landmarks by adding your name now.
America doesn’t need a king, and we must not allow Trump to crown himself one.
- DFA AF Team
