He's 'messing up our country': Rural Montanans protest Trump at 'No Kings' event in Hamilton

Hundreds lined U.S. Highway 93 through downtown Hamilton on Saturday to voice their opposition to President Donald Trump and the actions of his administration during the nationwide "No Kings" protest.

Bitterroot Valley community members held signs and flags while waving to passing cars in the deep-red Republican stronghold. Many honked and waived in solidarity while others rolled coal or flipped the bird in response.

Bitterroot Indivisible organizers said they counted more than 660 people at Saturday’s event, a fair turnout in a town of less than 6,000, according to census data.

Ron Osborn of Hamilton, a 93-year-old Korean War veteran, sat in his wheelchair at the corner of Main and First street in Hamilton with his wife Nancy.

Osborn served on Bahrain Island in the Persian Gulf in 1953. He said the ship he served on would dock to deliver medical care for local children in gulf countries, provide vaccinations and give the kids ice cream once they were done.

“The UAE existed of mud huts, palm trees and beaches” at the time, Osborn said.

Watching what is happening right now in the gulf, seeing places he’s been being bombed is “unbelievable," he said.

His wife Nancy carried a piece of paper with handwritten versus of the song "This Is My Country," composed in 1940 by Al Jacobs with lyrics by Don Raye.

“I woke up this morning and we're old,” she said, clutching the paper while standing next to Ron. “This song was written in the 1940s, ‘This is my country,’ these are the choruses for two verses,” she said before reciting the words, her voice cracking with emotion as she spoke.

“We are good, patriotic American citizens,” Ron said. “And the country is becoming more corrupt by the minute.”

Across the street, Megan Pace of Hamilton carried a sign promoting unity at Saturday's protest and expressed concern about the “dismantling” of democracy.

“I am a conservative Christian, homeschooling mama who loves democracy and thought that's what America was about, and I am heartbroken to see that we are dismantling that at a record pace,” she said. “I'm just here to ask Americans to look to one another because we are supposedly ‘We the People,’ and to stop letting the big voices tear us all apart and hate each other because we got this together, but not separated.”

Pace said she used to vote Republican before the Trump administration.

“I have always been a Republican voter. I have no idea what I am right now, because I do not understand the Republican Party right now,” she said.

The sentiment was echoed by Gene McDermott of Hamilton, who wore a Dropkick Murphys sweatshirt reading "Fighting Nazis Since 1996" to Saturday’s protest. The sweatshirt is similar to the T-shirt worn by former D.C. Metropolitan Police officer Michael Fanone in a now viral exchange with a Jan. 6 supporter caught on video during a hearing on Capitol Hill.

“We watched those guys get the crap kicked out of them, and that was just wrong,” he said.

McDermott said he also used to vote Republican, but that has changed in recent years.

“I was a Republican before Donald Trump,” McDermott said.

Now he’s “absolutely voting Democrat.”

“I am very much against Donald Trump and all the people he has working for him, and I think we should have no kings,” McDermott said. “He is really messing up our country.”

Not everyone who turned out on Saturday was opposed to Trump though. A group of three Trump supporters stood outside Marley's Bar and Casino in Hamilton.

One man who identified himself as Rob, and declined to give his last name, carried a sign offering to buy drinks for people who rolled coal at protesters. He said he supports the president and attended a protest to express his views and stand up for his beliefs, despite disagreements with protesters.

“I support our president,” he said. “I think he's doing a great job.”