In 2025, the state of Montana voted for Trump by nearly 20 points. But Montanan’s support for the president is waning because of the administration’s policies on public lands. To unpack the effects of DOGE cuts to public land agencies, host Esty Dinur is joined by journalist Cassidy Randall, author of a recent article, ‘I Didn’t Vote for This’: A Revolt Against DOGE Cuts, Deep in Trump Country. 

Randall says that the DOGE cuts that started last February are bad for public lands beyond the national parks. In Montana, people use public lands for recreation and public land agencies engage in wildfire mitigation and habitat restoration. Ranchers rely on grazing allotments because most ranches aren’t big enough to graze all their livestock. In Project 2025 there are plans to sell off and privatize private lands. Randall says that if you hollow out the agencies that manage them, it becomes an excuse to sell them off. “When we lose these places, they’re gone forever.”

Though Montana leans conservative, the people are pro-environment, and the right to a “clean and healthful environment” is written into the state’s constitution. And young people are winning climate lawsuits based on their constitutional rights. On top of the DOGE cuts, people in Montana are concerned about tariffs and the Trump administration’s relationship with Argentina. 

They also discuss how the ultra wealthy are turning to Montana as their playground, the crisis of rural hospitals in the state, and healthcare affordability. 

Cassidy Randall writes on adventure, environment, and the West. Her award-winning journalism has appeared in Rolling Stone, National Geographic, the New York Times, Vanity Fair, Outside, and Men’s Journal, among others; and her latest book, Thirty Below, was named one of The Washington Post’s Noteworthy Books of the Month and won the Banff Mountain Grand Prize.

Featured image of a sign for the Pryor Mountain Range in Montana via the Bureau of Land Management on Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

The post The Fight for Public Lands Could Rewire Montana’s Politics appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.