Trump Celebrated July 4th At A National Monument Carved By A Bombastic, Egotistical, Money-Loving White Supremacist, A Cocky, Fame-Seeking, Klansman With Delusions of Grandeur (How Appropriate Is That!)

Donald Trump's Fourth of July Confederate White Supremacy Spectacular could not have picked a more appropriate location than what is known as Mount Rushmore, in South Dakota.

The carving of the four presidents*, which began in 1927 and was completed in 1941, was overseen by Gutzon Borglum, the son of Danish Mormon polygamists and a deeply racist sculptor with strong ties to the Klu Klux Klan.

(* Two of whom owned slaves. Thomas Jefferson owned more than 600 slaves over the course of his life. Fun Fact: In 1824, Jefferson proposed a national plan to end slavery by having the government purchase enslaved infants for $12.50 each, raise and train them in various occupations, and then ship them to Santo Domingo.)

In the 1880s, Borglum traveled to Europe to study sculpture and became fascinated with works "on a grand scale with nationalistic subjects, which suited what many described as his bombastic, egotistical personality". John Taliaferro, the author of Great White Fathers: The Story Of The Obsessive Quest To Create Mount Rushmore, says Borglum was imperious, cocky, and prone to angry outbursts. Others faulted him for "disloyalty, offensive egotism and delusions of grandeur", as well as an excessive concern for money and notoriety. [Does that sound like anyone else to you?]

Many years later, in 1915, the Atlanta chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy approached Borglum about the construction of a monument to the Confederacy on Stone Mountain. Borglum immediately accepted. At the same time, "Birth of a Nation", D.W. Griffith's infamous film about the Civil War and Reconstruction, in which the Klan are the good guys, reclaiming the South from white carpetbaggers and freed slaves, was a nationwide hit. Its success inspired a resurgence of the Klan, which became a major financial backer of Borglum's memorial.

Taliaferro writes that while Borglum worked on Stone Mountain, he became intensely involved in Klan politics, attending rallies and serving on committees, and seeing the Klan "as a promising grass-roots movement with the potential to reshape the political map of the nation". In a letter Borglum wrote to a friend in the early 1920s, he described the Klan as "a fine lot of fellows" and said "if they elect the next President, by gosh I'm going to join 'em."

Borglum was always a big-time racist, referring to immigrants as "slippered assassins" and moaning that the United States was becoming an alien "scrap heap". In another letter, to his good friend, the Grand Dragon of the Realm of Indiana, he opined: "While Anglo-Saxons have themselves sinned grievously against the principle of pure nationalism by illicit slave and alien servant traffic, it has been the character of the cargo that has eaten into the very moral fiber of our race character, rather than the moral depravity of Anglo-Saxon traders."

After 10 years of work, Borglum was fired from the Stone Mountain project after annoying everyone around him. Fortunately, he had been contacted several months earlier by South Dakota's state historian about sculpting a tribute to the American West. The original plan included American explorers like Lewis and Clark, as well as Native Americans, including Sacagawea. Borglum convinced South Dakota to go in another direction.

Harold Frazier, chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, recently called for the removal of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial. On June 29, 2020, he issued a statement:

Nothing stands as a greater reminder to the Great Sioux Nation of a country that cannot keep a promise of treaty then the faces carved into our sacred land on what the United States calls Mount Rushmore. The United States of America wishes for all of us to be citizens and a family of their republic yet ... Lakota see the faces of men who lied, cheated and murdered innocent people whose only crime was living on land they wanted to steal. ... This brand on our flesh needs to be removed, and I am willing to do it free of charge to the United States, by myself if I must.

Last month, Oglala Sioux President Julian Bear Runner said Mount Rushmore is a "great sign of disrespect" and also believes it should be "removed".

In 1868, the Treaty of Fort Laramie granted the Black Hills to the Oglala, Miniconjou, and Brulé bands of Lakota people, Yanktonai Dakota and Arapaho Nation in perpetuity. Only eight years later, however, the United States violated the agreement by illegally seizing the land after gold was discovered. The US used the "Sell or Starve" Act, which cut off provisions to the Sioux if they refused to cede the land.

Several battles were fought between the US Army and the Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne, including the Black Hills War (1876-77), the Battle of Little Bighorn (known to the Natives as the Battle of the Greasy Grass) (1876), and the Wounded Knee Massacre (1890), in which hundreds of unarmed Sioux men, women, and children were slaughtered by the US Army.

(In 1980, the US Supreme Court ruled that the Sioux's land had been taken illegally and they were entitled to compensation. However, the Sioux refused the payment (more than $1 billion), demanding the return of their land.)

The National Park Service's website describes Mount Rushmore as "a symbol of freedom and hope for people from all cultures and backgrounds".