Could Donald Trump’s face be added to Mount Rushmore?

White House aides reached out to South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem last year about the process of adding additional presidents to Mount Rushmore, the New York Times reported.

According to a person familiar who spoke with the Times, Noem then greeted Trump when he arrived in the state for his July Fourth celebrations at the monument with a four-foot replica of Mount Rushmore that included his face.

Noem has noted before Trump's "dream" to have his face on Mount Rushmore, the Coolidge-era sculpture that features the 60-foot-tall faces of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.

According to a 2018 interview with Noem, the two struck up a conversation about the sculpture in the Oval Office during their first meeting, where she initially thought he was joking. "I started laughing," she said. "He wasn't laughing, so he was totally serious."

"He said, 'Kristi, come on over here. Shake my hand, and so I shook his hand, and I said, 'Mr. President, you should come to South Dakota sometime. We have Mount Rushmore.' And he goes, 'Do you know it's my dream to have my face on Mount Rushmore?'"

Could such a seismic change actually happen?

Previously, the National Park Service have always said that from a logistics point of view, the rock just isn't stable enough.

However, Texan stone carver Stuart Simpson thinks it could be done.

He told Kate Hawkesby that a lot of it has to do with the integrity of the granite mountain. 

Simpson says that the original carvers had issues with carving back into the mountain to find stronger stone to sculpt the stones.

"It would be very irresponsible if someone tried to carve into it in something that is unstable and potentially damage or ruin the other existing heads."

He believes though if you carved back far enough, you may find enough quality stone.