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August 15, 2024
After it became apparent that former President Donald Trump wouldn’t be landing in Bozeman last weekend, social media began spinning with speculation about why the private Boeing 757 known as Trump Force One was diverted to Billings.
An AI-generated image of a souped-up tow truck pulling Trump’s jet off a runway was posted to Instagram with a cutline falsely stating that “Trump couldn’t land his plane in Bozeman because he owes Bozeman airport over $12,000 in unpaid landing fees.”
Several people have contacted Bozeman airport manager Brian Sprenger about the unpaid bill story, which, to be clear, is fake. Trump’s jet landed in Billings with mechanical problems. Neither Donald Trump personally nor the Trump campaign owes Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport money, Sprenger told Capitolized. Planes with mechanical problems aren’t refused a place to land.
“In 2018, Trump campaigned in Bozeman, and it was held at the airport. So, we actually did bill the Trump campaign for some services. And we did end up getting paid in full,” Sprenger said. “About a month or two later, we got a call from a newspaper that talked about all the places that weren’t paid. But we were 100% paid.”
Days before the rally, Gallatin County, which owns the airport, told Montana Free Press there are no outstanding debts from then-President Trump’s previous Bozeman rally, which took place days before the 2018 November election that decided Montana’s U.S. Senate race between Democratic incumbent Jon Tester and Republican challenger Matt Rosendale. Security provided by the sheriff’s office as requested by the Secret Service isn’t billed out.
—Tom Lutey
This Green Won’t Go
Michael Downey withdrew his Green Party campaign for U.S. Senate on Aug. 12, the last day Montana candidates for public office could end their campaigns with assurance from Montana’s secretary of state that their names won’t appear on the November ballot.
The Greens have until Aug. 22 to appoint a replacement.
Downey, who defeated Robert Barb in the June primary, told Capitolized he didn’t want to be perceived as a spoiler in what’s expected to be a tight race between U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat, and Republican challenger Tim Sheehy. After the watching Donald Trump’s Aug. 9 Bozeman rally for Sheehy, Downey feared he might become just that.
Downey said his six months as a candidate provided an immersion course in the swift undercurrents of third-party Montana politics. He hadn’t planned to become a candidate until checking out the social media posts of early Green Senate filer Robert Barb, whose comments about climate change led Downey to believe Barb didn’t reflect core Green values. Downey registered his candidacy 90 minutes before the March 11 deadline.
More Jobs, Less Government, a political action committee that’s spent more than $11 million on the U.S. Senate race supporting Sheehy and opposing Tester, spent $22,173 on mailers branding Barb as a “radical progressive.” Downey assumed any publicity was good in such a low-profile race and didn’t know how he would counter ads mentioning Barb. Then he too was spotlighted. “It was a little weird. There was also a Michael Downey puff piece,” Downey said. “They never said you should vote for me, just what a great guy I was.”
That ad included Downey’s phone number and encouraged people to call and thank him, which some did. “It was weird, I don’t know who paid for that one,” he said. The mailers flattering Downey gave no indication about who paid for them.
The Green Party primary drew 1,089 voters, with Downey receiving 679.
—Tom Lutey
Meanwhile…
Republicans brought Libertarian candidate Sid Daoud to last weekend’s Trump rally to pressure him into dropping out of the Senate race. Daoud told KGEZ’s “Good Morning Show” that he was flown to Three Forks in a Cessna the day of the Trump rally and then traveled to Bozeman to meet with Montana’s Republican congressional delegation and members of the Sheehy and Trump campaigns. The National Libertarian Party Chair arranged the meeting, Daoud said, as the national party has been trying to negotiate the inclusion of Libertarians in the cabinet of a potential second Trump presidency.
“I had to look, you know, the former president in the eye, and after the inquiry, and tell him that, ‘no, you know, I’m not, I’m not dropping out.’ So that was an intense moment for me right there,” Daoud told KGEZ.
Regardless, Trump took the stage, called on Daoud to stand, and then told the capacity crowd of more than 8,000 people: “What a nice guy, Sid, please stand up. Please stand up. What a nice guy. A lot of us are Libertarian, and I think he’s going to be giving you a very nice surprise very soon.”
Daoud’s reasoning for staying in the race was published in an open letter to Republicans posted to his campaign’s Facebook page July 25. He specifically faulted Sen. Steve Daines for hand-selecting Sheehy and culling Rep. Matt Rosendale from the race.
“It is highly unlikely that I would still be in this race if Representative @MattRosendale continued in the U.S. Senate race and won the Republican primary. I could have rested, assured that we had that voice in the Senate. I would have just gone back to being a [Kalispell] city councilman and the fishing I love so much. However, he was pushed out of that race and then subsequently threatened out of running to retain his seat in the House of Representatives.
Though Rosendale cited anonymous threats to his family as reasons for not seeking reelection in the House, he has never suggested that Daines threatened him.
Rosendale was an official Senate candidate for 6 days in February before Trump endorsed Sheehy. At the time, Rosendale said the endorsement was too much to overcome.
The representative for Montana’s second U.S. House district didn’t attend the Trump rally in Bozeman, where all but a couple of statewide elected Republicans addressed the audience.
Rosendale’s chief of staff Aashka Varma said Wednesday that Rosendale wasn’t invited.
—Tom Lutey
Words of Praise and Scorn
Legislator Cited
State Rep. Julie Dooling, R-Townsend, has been cited for allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol in Broadwater County after the Montana Highway Patrol stopped Dooling at 11 p.m. on Aug. 2. Dooling, 52, pleaded not guilty to the charge in Broadwater County Justice Court on Aug. 9. Dooling has represented House District 70, which includes Townsend, for three terms.
On Background
- More Jobs, Less Government is a PAC that’s spent solely in Montana’s Senate race and has spent in roughly equal measure supporting Sheehy and opposing Jon Tester.
- The Aug. 9 rally in Bozeman was Trump’s sixth in Montana since 2016, the most of any American president. Five have been aimed at unseating U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, Montana’s only statewide elected Democrat.
- How Montana’s Green Party found itself at the center of a political circus. A story of outside influence on Green Party politics in Montana.
