‘America has to come first’: Trump wins favour with Native Americans
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Navajo Nation resident Gilberta Cortes at her home in Arizona, the US, where heatwaves are growing more intense. US President Donald Trump’s climate change scepticism is a concern.
PHOTO: AFP
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TUBA CITY, Arizona – Fed up with rising gas prices, Ms Nita Mexican voted in November 2024 for then US presidential candidate Donald Trump, who is increasingly popular among Native American communities which have long supported the political left.
“A lot of the younger ones are for him now, including friends of our grandkids,” the 77-year-old member of the Navajo Nation reservation told AFP.
As a Republican voter, Ms Mexican was used to being in the minority in Tuba City, a small, remote hamlet in the Arizona desert, located on a plateau part of the vast Native American reservation.
But in recent years, she has witnessed a change in attitudes towards the divisive US President.
Like her, some neighbours have begun to blame immigration from Latin America for the unemployment and drug trade plaguing the impoverished reservation.
“Trump is cleaning up America, it’s a good thing,” said Ms Mexican, a former power plant employee who praised Mr Trump’s hardline deportation policy.
“America has to come first,” she said. “Us Natives, we are Americans and we should have the jobs first.”
Rising inflation is an enduring concern in this isolated region, where cars are essential for getting around.
Ms Mexican and her husband Joe spend US$40 (S$51) a day on gasoline to tend to their sheep, which are kept in a pen some 40km away.
The couple also provide financial support for some of their unemployed grandchildren.
“Sometimes, we don’t have enough to get groceries for the both of us,” Ms Mexican said, adding that she would like Mr Trump to “slow down” on his tariffs targeting multiple imported products
Surprising inroads
Spanning the south-western states of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, the Navajo Nation is the largest Native American reservation in the United States.
Mr Trump made surprising inroads in the 2024 presidential election in the region that has been a Democratic stronghold since the 1980s.
The Republican leader notably won by 17.1 points in Navajo County, double his margin of victory from four years earlier, and lost by just 19 points in Apache County, down from 33.6 in 2020.
A similar trend was observed nationwide, from North Carolina to Montana, with Native American voters overall backing then Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, but with much less enthusiasm than in the past.
Like with Latino voters, more men than women from the minority group voted for Mr Trump, according to polls.
Over at Ms Gilberta Cortes’ home, she said she “butts heads... all the time” with her 21-year-old son, who voted for Mr Trump.
“He talks about inflation, he says that cartels are ruining everything for Native Americans,” Ms Cortes said.
The 42-year-old mother is not as impressed by the billionaire US President.
She resents his mockery of the Native American origins of Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, whom he regularly refers to as “Pocahontas”.
‘Favouritism’
Laws enacted by Mr Trump during his first term to probe the disappearance of thousands of Native American women did not persuade her either.
“It was just favouritism so that he would get our votes,” said the left-wing voter.
And the US President’s anti-immigration rhetoric and policies have unsettled her further.
Several Navajos have been stopped in recent months by immigration agents because of their skin color, according to some reservation officials.
“You see a lot of racism... When I go out, I feel like I’m just walking on eggshells,” said Ms Cortes.
Mr Trump’s climate change scepticism is also a concern, with many Native Americans claiming a spiritual connection to the environment.
Ms Cortes has had to forbid her children from playing outside in the summer because of heatwaves, which are growing more intense in the Arizona desert.
“If he drills oil like crazy and he makes cuts to environmental agencies, it’s gonna make things worse in the long run,” Ms Cortes said.
Mr Elbert Yazzie thinks some of his friends will soon regret their decision.
Mr Trump’s recently passed signature spending Bill is expected to shrink the federal food assistance programme, among other cuts that could hit low-income Americans.
“They voted for him because they thought there would be more jobs for us American citizens. But instead, he’s cutting off food stamps,” Mr Yazzie told AFP from his caravan.
“That’s going to affect a lot of people around here.” AFP
