Speaking during an interview with Fox News Channel host Lara Trump on her show “My View with Lara Trump,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said that there is more than enough room for the face of her father-in-law, President Donald Trump, to be added to Mount Rushmore and thus enshrined as one of America’s most notable presidents.
Interior Secretary Burgum, as background, is the former Republican Governor of North Dakota, and he briefly ran for president in the 2024 Republican primary process, but dropped out soon enough to not present himself as an enemy of President Trump. He was rewarded for that with the Department of the Interior position.
In any case, Burgum appeared on Lara Trump’s show on Saturday, March 29, and during that appearance discussed some of President Donald Trump’s notable Department of the Interior-related accomplishments over the first few months of his presidency, such as renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
Continuing, Secretary Burgum went on to note that President Trump had renamed a wildlife preserve after Jocelyn Nungaray, the 12-year-old Texas girl who was murdered in 2024 by an illegal immigrant. That wildlife preserve is the Jocelyn Nungaray National Wildlife Refuge in Chambers County, TX.
Commenting on that accomplishment, Secretary Burgum first described the incomprehensible nature of the tragedy, saying, “To have the loss of a beautiful 12-year-old daughter, it’s incomprehensible to have such a tragedy committed by people that should not have been in our country.”
Building on that, he noted that the renamed wildlife refuge stands as a testament to the Trump Administration’s willingness to fight to ensure this doesn’t happen again. He said, “In our country, there are legally violent criminals to do that. So for President Trump to invite her sister and her mother, Alexis, to be at his address to Congress and really say, hey, we’re not going to let this happen to anybody else.”
That’s when Lara Trump chimed back in and asked the Interior Secretary if he sees any room on the Mount Rushmore monument for President Trump to be added to the mountainside alongside former Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.
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She asked, on that point, “The Department of Interior is in charge of the National Park Service. The National Park Services is in charge of Mount Rushmore. A lot of people wonder! Will we ever see President Trump’s face on Mount Rushmore? What do you think?”
In response, Secretary Burgum told her, “Well, they certainly have room for it there.” He then added that there are events planned at the monument for the 250-year remembrance of the Declaration of Independence, saying, “They just signed the order last week. On July 3, 2026, we’re going to have fireworks at Mount Rushmore.” Concluding, he added that there will be a great many more events for the anniversary celebration as well. He told Lara Trump, “And we’ve got a lot of amazing USA 250 events planned from across the country.” Watch Burgum and Lara here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video