President Trump Donald John TrumpBubba Wallace to be driver of Michael Jordan, Denny Hamlin NASCAR team Graham: GOP will confirm Trump's Supreme Court nominee before the election Southwest Airlines, unions call for six-month extension of government aid MORE at a Tuesday evening rally floated the idea of someday being on Mount Rushmore before turning to attack the press corps.

During a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, Trump turned to a routine talking point, saying “every president on Mount Rushmore believed in protecting American industry.”

But the president quipped that if he jokingly suggested he should be on Mount Rushmore, the media would take him seriously.

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“Now here’s what I do. I’d ask whether or not you someday think I will be on Mount Rushmore,” Trump explained.

“But here’s the problem, if I did it joking, totally joking, having fun, the fake news media will say ‘he believes he should be on Mount Rushmore.’ So I won’t say it. Okay? I won’t say it.”

The president reiterated his recurring attacks on the press, calling the media “a dishonest group of people.”

“But every president -- they’ll say it anyway, you watch. ‘Trump thinks he should be on Mount Rushmore. Isn’t that terrible?” Trump added.

Trump in his most recent weekly address noted that the four presidents whose heads are on Mount Rushmore believed in the importance of the American industry.

“Every president on mount Rushmore believed in protecting American industry,” Trump said at the rally. “We have to protect our industry. And now we are going to start. We are reclaiming our heritage as a manufacturing nation again.”