As Trumpism continues to reshape the GOP’s identity, an increasing number of Republican lawmakers are pushing bold efforts to venerate U.S. President Donald Trump while he is still in office.
Among the proposals: a push to place Trump’s portrait on the $100 bill, carve his face into Mount Rushmore, rename Dulles Airport in his honor, and declare his birthday a federal holiday.
Highlights
- Republican lawmakers proposed placing Trump's portrait on the $100 bill, requiring repeal of an 1866 law against living persons on currency.
- One lawmaker suggest carving Trump’s face into Mount Rushmore despite the monument being full.
- Another seeks to declare Trump’s birthday a federal holiday, coinciding with Flag Day on June 14.
- Other proposed legislation includes renaming D.C.’s Metrorail to the 'Trump Train.'
- Historians view these proposals as an unprecedented effort to deify a sitting president, marking a break from traditional commemorations.
A new $250 note bearing his likeness has also been proposed.
Republican lawmakers propose adding Trump’s portrait to $100 bill and Mount Rushmore
Image credits: The White House/ Flickr
These proposals are unlikely to come to fruition, but together they reflect an ambitious effort by some House Republicans to celebrate a sitting president on a national scale.
At the center of this is Rep. Brandon Gill’s Golden Age Act, which would require the Treasury to replace Benjamin Franklin’s portrait on the $100 bill with Trump’s by 2028.
While putting Trump’s image on money would require repealing an 1866 law prohibiting the printing of a living person’s image on American currency, Gill believes it’s worth changing the law to honor Trump.
“He’s done more in 40 days than most presidents do in four years or eight years,” Gill told Politico in March 2025. “So I think we ought to give him credit for that.”
Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina proposed a separate bill calling for the minting of a new $250 note with Trump’s face on it, perfectly timed to coincide with the country’s 250th birthday.
Meanwhile, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida wants Trump’s image etched onto Mount Rushmore, despite the National Park Service saying there’s no room left on the monument.
Still, Luna believes Trump deserves a spot beside Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt.
Image credits: Tom Williams/ Getty Images
The bill follows a 2020 post from Trump, who denied reports about wanting his face on Mount Rushmore, then added, “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!”
Meanwhile, Rep. Claudia Tenney of New York introduced legislation to officially recognize Trump’s birthday, June 14, as a national holiday.
The day also happens to be Flag Day. So far, no word on whether birthday cake would become a national requirement.
Other tributes stretch beyond symbols and into financial policy.
A House-passed budget measure would create $1,000 savings accounts for every baby born after October 2026. Originally dubbed “MAGA Accounts,” the bill was later renamed “Trump Accounts” in honor of the president.
GOP lawmakers want to venerate Trump while he is still in office
Then there’s Rep. Greg Steube of Florida, who proposed renaming Washington, D.C.’s Metrorail system the “Trump Train. ”
His bill would also rebrand the transit agency as the Washington Metropolitan Authority for Greater Access, or ‘WMAGA,’ a play on Trump’s MAGA movement.
If D.C. refuses, Steube’s bill threatens to withhold over $150 million in federal funds from the city’s transit system.
Rep. Warren Davidson of Ohio has even introduced a bill urging the NIH to research TDS, “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” defined as “intense emotional or cognitive reactions to Donald J. Trump.”
Efforts to honor Trump have extended beyond symbolic gestures.
Image credits: Anna Paulina Luna
Some Republicans have introduced bills to allow for a third presidential term, revive efforts to purchase Greenland and call it “Red, White and Blueland,” and rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.”
Though these proposals are long shots, they reflect a pattern of legislation designed to highlight Trump’s priorities and political mythologies.
So far, Trump has not endorsed any of these tributes. His supporters insist he had no role in their creation.
Image credits: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
“President Trump isn’t calling members of Congress and saying, ‘Hey, would you go out there and flatter me today by coming up with legislation?’ He doesn’t do that,” Rep. Troy Nehls, co-sponsor of Gill’s bill, told Politico.
“This is just members taking initiative to show some love and respect to the greatest president in our lifetimes.”
Historians note that the scale and timing of the current Trump-centered proposals mark a departure from precedent.
“It’s an effort to transform a sitting president into a kind of deified figure,” said Sean Wilentz, a Princeton historian and author of The Rise of American Democracy. “This is exactly what the American Revolution was fought to prevent.”
There’s precedent for honoring presidents while they’re alive. Barack Obama saw schools, roads, and even a mountain peak named after him.
But those moves were made by local governments and civic groups, not Congress.
The current blitz of legislation is different. It is national in scope, and it’s happening while Trump is still the sitting president.