Noem said the two struck up a conversation in their first meeting at the Oval Office. (Watch in the video above)

“He said, ‘Kristi, come on over here. Shake my hand,'” Noem said. “I shook his hand, and I said, ‘Mr. President, you should come to South Dakota sometime. We have Mount Rushmore.’ And he goes, ‘Do you know it’s my dream to have my face on Mount Rushmore?'”

Noem thought he was joking.

“I started laughing,” she said. “He wasn’t laughing, so he was totally serious.”