An entirely circular public relations stunt aided by the NY Times. Trump wasn’t accountable because one of his minions approached the South Dakota government with the flackery of Trumpist followers and the pretensions of Grover Norquist for Reagan’s head. Even though Trump has been informally yakking about it since taking office the Trump White House still has notional understandings of how governments work.
But after President Trump was sworn in, he relayed his dream of actually being carved on the mountain, according to South Dakota Rep. Kristi Noem. (2018)