COLOMBIA (AP) – A Republican lawmaker in South Carolina said he is entering a bill that would allow former President Donald Trump to be buried at the state capitol if Trump were banned from being buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Dep. RJ May said his project is a response to a project in the US House sponsored by a Democrat who forbids presidents twice accused of being honored with burial at one of the country’s most revered resting places or of having federal money spent on any memorials.
Trump is the only president to be charged twice.
The bill proposed by May applies only to presidents acquitted twice – the U.S. Senate has refused to condemn Trump the two times the House has impeached it.
If Trump agreed to be buried at the South Carolina State House, a committee would determine a suitable resting place.
The May bill was not listed among the bills presented on Thursday in the House, but the first-term legislator in the Lexington County Republican stronghold posted a screenshot of the proposal on his Facebook page.
Only one other person is buried in the South Carolina state building. Revolutionary War captain Swanson Lunsford died of yellow fever in 1799 and was buried in a remote part of the land because Columbia officials were probably concerned that the disease could spread if he were buried in a public church or cemetery, according to Historic Columbia.
Nor did Trump’s national or state burial bills go beyond filing. In the first two months of the South Carolina General Assembly session, nearly 1,000 bills were filed.