Some Montana Trump voters are never thought their faces would get eaten:
Zink, 57, is a third-generation houndsman who hunts big game, including mountain lions and bears. He also owns an archery target business. He’s a rural Montanan whose way of life and livelihood depend on public lands.
He led me into the Hilltop, where half the people inside knew his name, to a corner where we sat drinking diner coffee. “You won’t meet anyone more conservative than me, and I didn’t vote for this,” Zink said.
“This” is the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) deep cuts earlier this year to federal public lands agencies’ funding and to the staff at those agencies who administer that funding and steward public lands and wildlife.
Zink voted for Trump but said he doesn’t agree with everything the president does. Zink clarifies he calls himself a “conservative” over calling himself a “Republican.” He doesn’t like Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric. “I prefer common sense in the middle,” he said.
He believes wolves need to be hunted to manage their numbers; abortion should only be legal in cases of rape, incest and to protect the mother’s life; and he’s an ardent Second Amendment supporter. He’s also a passionate advocate for public lands and wildlife. And the cuts have, frankly, ticked him off.
Oh really? He cares about public lands and wildlife? Did he think Trump gives a damn about any of that? Lol.
Trump wants to open public lands to development and he’s quite serious about doing it. He’s already opened up ANWR in Alaska.
hanks to an outpouring of opposition from across the political spectrum, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) was forced to withdraw language from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) that would have sold millions of acres of public lands to pay for tax cuts for billionaires.1 Nonetheless, a flurry of orders and proposals from the Trump administration—some supercharged by lesser-known provisions in the OBBBA—are still in motion to open up vast amounts of public land for extractive development, allowing it to be leased and claimed by drilling, mining, and logging companies.
The Trump administration has made little secret of its plan to let private companies drill, mine, and log America’s public lands. In fact, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum—who is charged with overseeing the majority of U.S. public lands—recently told those extractive corporations that he views them as “the customer” for his department.
When he was sparring with Canada over lumber early in he said he wants to open the national forests to commercial logging so we aren’t “dependent” on the Canadians.
He does not care about preserving anything, anywhere. It’s all about making money for himself and his rich friends and stroking his ego. Since he doesn’t value nature (and he hates animals) destroying America’s natural beauty is the least of his concerns.
Leopards (and wolves) love the taste of “very conservative Trump voters.” And they are starting to feast.
Happy Hollandaise everyone!