When the history of the first quarter of the 21st century is written, one towering political figure will rise above the rest — President Donald Trump.
John Fredericks
That’s why I believe he belongs on Mount Rushmore.
The Washington establishment will never approve. Nor will CNN, The New York Times or the elite cocktail crowd in Georgetown or Manhattan.
But Trump fundamentally changed the direction of the United States of America. How many presidents can honestly say that?
Trump didn’t just win elections. He shattered an entire political order. For decades, Republicans promised to secure the border. President Joe Biden said he needed Congress to do it.
Trump did it in three months.
Many of the elite in Washington talked about putting American workers first. Instead, they shipped our jobs overseas in their never-ending lust for cheap labor. Trump made it the centerpiece of his movement and is delivering on manufacturing jobs.
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Other leaders complained about unfair trade deals. Trump confronted them -- and changed it all.
Other leaders warned about China while corporations profited from cheap labor overseas. Trump took on Beijing directly.
President Donald Trump, some of his aides and supporters have proposed a number of absurd ideas to aggrandize him. By far the most absurd is their repeated appeals to add his likeness to Mount Rushmore.
He transformed the Republican Party from a country club organization built around donor dinners and consultant talking points into a populist movement built around forgotten Americans who had been ignored for generations: coal miners, factory workers, truck drivers, farmers, secretaries, small business owners, police officers and parents. Trump stood for the people who actually build this country.
The political elites laughed. Then they lost -- twice.
Take the issue of the southern border and the record of presidential failure going back to President Ronald Reagan.
In December 2023, the Border Patrol recorded almost 250,000 illegal border crossings. In May of this year? Just 10,000. Problem solved.
And even after years of investigations, impeachments, prosecutions, media attacks and predictions that “this time it’s over,” Trump kept coming back because millions of Americans believed somebody was finally fighting for them instead of managing their decline.
That doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because leadership matters.
George Washington created the presidency. Thomas Jefferson expanded America. Abraham Lincoln saved the Union. Theodore Roosevelt projected American strength.
Trump redefined American politics.
Whether his critics like it or not, the political landscape will never look the same again.
Today’s Republican Party isn’t former presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s party. It isn’t the Bush family’s party. It’s the America First Party.
Trump built that.
His influence reaches far beyond one administration or one election cycle. Republican candidates nationwide now campaign on border security, energy independence, fair trade, manufacturing, higher wages and putting American citizens first because Trump proved those issues resonated with millions of voters.
The monument doesn’t celebrate perfection. It celebrates presidents whose leadership permanently altered the American story. By that standard, Trump’s record deserves to be in the conversation.
His opponents can stomp their feet. Cable news hosts can roll their eyes. Editorial boards can huff and puff. None of that changes reality.
History has a funny way of rewarding leaders who challenged the establishment, survived relentless opposition and left the country politically transformed. Love him or hate him, America is a different nation because of Trump.
That is the test history applies.
And if Mount Rushmore honors presidents who reshaped the republic, then Trump has earned his place on that monument.
