It has been attempted! I've taught if to over 400 beginners now and cannot overstate how it's not just possible but actually works pretty damn well. And students instantly have a background from which they can learn other languages too.
I'm the author of the quote at the top of this blog post. I've at this point taught rust as a first language to over 400 people and am very amused by the claims in this thread and it's comments. After a few years of doing this I'm not just convinced it's possible, but have seen a lot of evidence of it working pretty well.