I never thought the Elon would eat my face

“I never thought the war on scientific research meant this kind of research…”

In an era of rural decline, this town of 5,000 touts art galleries and upscale cafes. Its Main Street, with a homegrown department store still going strong after 75 years, remains a draw not just for locals but for the tourists who come to explore the surrounding mountain wilderness.

But many people worry that the future is at risk.Hamilton has dependedfor decades on what seemed a reliable economic foundation — the federal government, which employs hundreds at a world-renowned scientific laboratory and in the Bitterroot National Forest. Now staff and funding cuts at both are shaking this pocket of deep-red Montana, prompting itsleadersto warn President Donald Trump’s administration of “dangerous safety and economic consequences” and sending citizensinto the streets to protest.

As one saying here goes,locals either have a PhD or a GED. It’swry recognition of the outsize role of federalemployment in an areawhere most alternatives pay little despite a median home price of about$600,000. Hamilton leaders fear researchers at Rocky Mountain Laboratories and forest managers who lose their jobs are likely to leave, taking their salaries, families, firefighting skills and community contributions with them.

“They are participating in the local economy. They’re volunteers for our nonprofits, for our schools. They’re very engaged citizens,” said Robin Pruitt, the city council president. “We know that our community would be devastated to lose these community members.”

The dynamic has made Hamilton a prime example of the ripple effects of the administration’s efforts to drastically shrink the government. The consequences of pink slips always reachbeyond the individual employees fired. Yet they feel magnified in a town this size.

[…]

This spring,the city council moved a listening session on the cuts from City Hall to the middle school, a larger venue to accommodate more than 200 attendees. Though Hamilton leans more blue than the broader Bitterroot Valley, the council had seen its share of ideological battles — a proposed rainbow-painted crosswalk sparked a “holy war” a few years ago, Pruitt recounted — and its members were unsure how heated the meeting would get.

All comments were on one side: Protect federal jobs.

The council responded by passing a resolution opposing the cuts and pleading, in letters to the NIH and USDA, to consider its perspective. “We’re just about as low on the government pecking order as it comes, but we had to do something,” said Pruitt, whose position is nonpartisan.

But this is Trump country, and Ravalli County’s three Republican commissioners,who represent a jurisdiction where 69 percent of voters backed the president, see the situationdifferently. At a recentmeeting, dozens of residents urged them to press Montana’s congressional delegation to challenge the staff reductions. “Some of the people making cuts could not tell the difference between a deer and an elk,” a former lab worker said.

“There’s some reason for concerns,” commissioner Greg Chilcott responded, “but at the same time, we’re $37 trillion in debt as a nation. … Something has to be done.”

His comments were booed.

In theory, Trump and Elon could carve put exemptions for red-state rural areas, but 1)they don’t give the slightest shit, and 2)their assumption that it won’t ultimately cost them any material support is almost certainly correct.

MORAN: Even some people who voted for you are saying, 'I didn't sign up for this.' So how do you answer those concerns? TRUMP: Well, they did sign up for it actually

[image or embed]— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) April 29, 2025 at 5:09 PM