Donald Trump is sharing old memes and envisioning himself on monuments to America’s most well-known presidents as the January 6 committee prepares for its first public hearing later this week.
The ex-president “re-Truthed” two images depicting himself as part of the iconic Mount Rushmore monument in South Dakota on Monday, according to Insider.
One of the images was actually a photograph taken by the Associated Press in 2020 that captured Mr Trump grinning in front of the monument during a visit to the site; due to the framing, Mr Trump’s visage is squared near-perfectly with an emply spot on the monument.
It was shared by his daughter, Ivanka, on Twitter shortly after it was taken.
Another photo, this one edited, depicted Mr Trump as part of the monument itself.
In the summer of 2020 it was reported by The New York Times that Mr Trump’s White House staff had contacted South Dakota Gov Kirsti Noem’s office about potentially adding the likeness of Donald Trump to the famous landmark; at the time, Mr Trump denied the rumour from his soon-to-be-defunct Twitter account.
“This is Fake News by the failing @nytimes & bad ratings @CNN. 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!” he noted at the time.
In a more recent interview last year with right-wing podcaster Dan Bongino, he agreed with a suggestion that his likeness would be a part of the monument already were he a Democrat.
“If you would have run as a Democrat, you’d be on Mount Rushmore right now,” Mr Bongino told Mr Trump at the time, just three months after a deadly attack on the US Capitol by a mob of Mr Trump’s supporters.
“I know, I know — yeah, I would have,” Mr Trump agreed.
The latest posts come just days before the former president is set to be on trial, if in absentia, in front of Congress and the eyes of the nation as bipartisan members of the January 6 select committee are set to begin presenting their findings in their first public hearing.
The first hearing is set for Thursday, and as of yet no witnesses have been publicly announced. The committee is set to host a handful of other hearings in the weeks ahead.
Little has been released about the committee’s plans, but lawmakers around Capitol Hill are reportedly bracing for revelations that could be made during the hearing and subsequent meetings.
One member of the panel, Rep Jamie Raskin, hinted as much in an April interview with the Associated Press.
“The hearings will tell a story that will really blow the roof off the House," said the Maryland Democrat. “Because it is a story of the most heinous and dastardly political offense ever organized by a president and his followers and his entourage in the history of the United States.”
