In the heart of Trump country, voters see a brighter future ahead

Last week, 17-year-old Gauge Bass enlisted in the Air Force with his mother’s support. Both agreed that he wouldn’t have done so if President Trump hadn’t won the election.

“Trump is a more reliable source of direction for the country,” said his mother, Joy Story, a maintenance worker at an apartment complex who has struggled to support her two children.

Nearly nine in 10 voters here in Montague County, Texas, backed Trump in November, making it among the Trumpiest counties in the U.S., according to results tallied by the Associated Press. It is a place where voters are thrilled to see Trump delivering on campaign promises—no matter how disruptive they are to those in the nation’s capital, those on Wall Street or the broader set of voters who are nervous about Trump’s whirlwind return to Washington.

Here, voters are enthused to see deportations of immigrants in the country illegally and support the country paying a high price to use military aircraft for the deportations. The optics of the practice, which the U.S. has suspended, are a deterrent, they say. They have celebrated cuts to federal agencies. Local manufacturers are optimistic that tariffs will revive domestic industry, making price increases worth the pain.

Last week, Trump shocked many in Washington and European capitals with a heated Oval Office clash with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and halted military aid the U.S. had been providing the country to defend against an invasion by Russia. Several Montague County Republicans said they want to see the war end regardless of the cost to Ukraine and don’t consider Russia a threat to the U.S.

This week, Trump imposed 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, injuring relations with the U.S.’s closest neighbors and leading free-trade advocates to predict harsh economic fallout. Trump voters here said they trust that the tariffs will help the country eventually—even if they mean higher costs for goods immediately.

“What’s the highest rating I can give him?” Wendy Parlett, a Realtor in Montague County, said of the president.

Montague County, population 21,000, is 84% white with an above-average poverty rate and a below-average education rate. Median per capita income is just under $30,700 versus $43,300 nationally. Locals said they used to be mostly Democrats and shifted Republican in the 1990s, following Texas overall and, more recently, the populist shift of the GOP.

The recently enlisted Bass, who lost his father to addiction when he was a child and became a father himself at 15, said he had increasingly felt despair in recent years over the economy and the state of the country in general. His mother, though she relies on Medicaid and food stamps, said she resents other forms of government assistance that she thinks encourage people not to work.

Bass learned more about politics through his grandmother, Melody Gillespie, who serves as the Montague County GOP chair. He said he has been glad to see Trump “put an iron fist down” in his first month on things ranging from Ukraine aid to illegal immigration.

Gillespie cited her grandson as among the ways Trump’s term is leading to confidence among his supporters, much of it based on perception as much as specific actions. Parlett described friends from Mississippi who wouldn’t allow their teenage son to travel to Texas before Trump was elected, because of fears about the border. (Bowie is 500 miles from the border, and border counties have long had among the lowest crime rates in the state.)

“It’s easy to say, ‘Oh, well, we like this or that,’” Gillespie said. “But the overreaching thing is that confidence and faith is doing things…pulling people out of fear.”

Gillespie found herself furious Tuesday night when Trump listed alleged fraud and waste found in the federal government. “How can I barely make ends meet and hear this list of waste?” she said.

Local Republicans are proud of the event they are planning later this month to celebrate Larry Brock Jr., a North Texas former Air Force officer who was pardoned by Trump after being convicted of storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in combat gear. Before the riot, Brock had posted on Facebook calling for insurrection and telling his followers to execute “traitors” and members of the media, according to evidence presented at his trial. He wrote not to kill law-enforcement officers “unless necessary.”

Brock said in an email that his actions on Jan. 6 were peaceful. “I acted to defend the theft of the American people’s vote in 2020,” he said. “I look forward to speaking to the patriots of Montague County.”

When Marcus Weems and his husband moved from Dallas to Bowie to retire four years ago, he worried about the reception they would get as a gay couple, he said. But the most negative experience was having someone shout “Hippie!” at him for having hair past his shoulders.

Weems said as a Democrat, he has learned not to bring up politics, but he tries to find ways to subtly resist Trumpism. At the Wildflower, a local vintage market, Weems has a booth selling jewelry, paintings and hats with a picture of a comma and the musical symbol for “la”—a way for people to secretly show their support for Kamala Harris, he said.

None of the hats have sold.

Like many rural counties, the biggest employer in Montague is the school district, county officials said. Many locals work in the oil business. And three of the most prominent local businesses represent quintessential Americana: a cowboy-hat company, a boot company and a baseball glove manufacturer.

“American Pastime, American Made,” reads a mural on the outside of Nokona Gloves in Nocona, a Montague County town 20 miles north of Bowie. Inside, the wall bears a large photo display of Trump, during his first term, when the company was invited to a White House event.

Nokona Vice President Rob Storey, whose grandfather started the company in 1926, said online sales and customization have allowed the company to survive against others manufacturing more cheaply in Asia. Storey said he has mixed feelings about Trump’s new tariffs because he has long paid a 40% tariff on Japanese leather he uses for some specialty gloves. But he said he expects the Chinese tariffs to have a marginal impact on his competitors, if any.

Down the street from Nokona, workers cut, stitch and pound leather at Fenoglio Boot Co. The Fenoglio family, whose roots in the county run seven generations deep, celebrated Trump’s return to office by making him a pair of specialty boots reading 47.

Not all Republicans are happy with the president’s first month. Jayson Norby, a highway construction superintendent who voted for Trump, said he has started to view Trump’s moves—including giving power to Elon Musk, and what he said was Trump’s support of Russia—as corrupt and authoritarian.

“The first go-round with Trump was a lot better,” Norby said. “This one is starting to scare me.”