Making President Donald Trump’s birthday a national holiday, carving his face on Mount Rushmore, and renaming a Washington, D.C. airport after him are just some of the legislative changes that Republicans are pushing to honor the 45th and 47th president.
Some of the bills support the 78-year-old president’s efforts — like renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America or Greenland to “Red, White and Blueland” — while others have introduced adulating legislation that would place Trump as a renowned historical figure in the company of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, the Wall Street Journal first reported.
“It’s an opportunity for us to show the country that Congress supports the president,” Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles told the newspaper.
Last month, Ogles proposed revising the 22nd Amendment to allow Trump to serve a third term, calling the president “the only figure in modern history capable of reversing our nation’s decay and restoring America to greatness, and he must be given the time necessary to accomplish that goal.”
That same week, Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna introduced a bill to put President Trump's face on Mount Rushmore.
“His remarkable accomplishments for our country and the success he will continue to deliver deserve the highest recognition and honor on this iconic national monument,” she wrote on X. “Let's get carving!”
The bill comes five years after Trump denied reports that the White House had reached out to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, then the governor of South Dakota, about adding his face to the landmark. He wrote on X in August 2020: “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!”
Three days after his second inauguration, North Carolina Rep. Addison McDowell introduced a bill that would rename Virginia’s Dulles International Airport, a travel hub in the D.C. area, as Donald J. Trump International Airport.
Texas Rep. Brandon Gill, a cosponsor of the bill, explained his support, writing on X: “President Trump is the greatest president of my lifetime, so it’s only fitting that we honor him and the incredible leadership he has brought and will continue to bring to save our great nation.”
Meanwhile, New York Rep. Claudia Tenney earlier this month introduced a bill to make Trump’s birthday, June 14, a national holiday. Flag Day happens to be the same day, so her legislation proposes to “permanently codify a new federal holiday called ‘Trump’s Birthday and Flag Day’ on June 14 to honor this historic day.”
Just as “George Washington’s Birthday is codified as a federal holiday, this bill will add Trump’s Birthday to this list, recognizing him as the founder of America’s Golden Age,” she said in a statement.
Republicans appear to be pushing the legislation bills to emphasize their obsequious loyalty to Trump. Democrats think the bills signal desperation.
“At this point, House Republicans should stop filing these desperate, pointless bills that do nothing to bring down the cost of rent or groceries, and just rent one of Elon’s rockets to write ‘Love me Donny’ in the sky in front of Mar-a-Lago,” Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett told the Journal. “It would be faster.”
