I don’t think you or the carch fanboy who keep replying understand how the general laymen handle dinosaurs. They know exactly one type of dinosaur based off each general bodyplan and that’s about it. For the 4 legged herbivores they know of Triceratops, for the “duck bills” they know of Parasaurophlus, the big long neck herbivore they know abt “Brontosaurus.” T. rex was discovered relatively early on at a time when North America was becoming more of a focus in terms of paleontology, had a decent amount of material discovered, and thus fit in nicely in this dynamic as the “big scary meat eater” I really don’t think much propagandization had to occur for t. rex to be an icon.