Sucker-punched | Mary Sheehy Moe

In the three-ring circus of Montana’s current senate race, the Republican candidate’s messaging reflects a philosophy ascribed to P.T. Barnum: “There’s a sucker born every minute.”

In ad after ad, Kurt Alme assures us he’ll cut government spending. But can even the sappiest sucker believe that this man, back-doored onto the slate by a Trump sycophant after winning an endorsement predicated on continuing servitude, will stop Trump’s profligate spending?

In vanity projects alone, without a peep from Montana’s current senators, Trump has created his own personal ATM: American Taxpayers’ Money.

Forget, if you can, the $689,232 spent to replace the Tennessee flagstone in the West Colonnade with Italian-cut African granite. We were told private donors would fund it. Actually, the National Park Service did ... the same year it said goodbye to 25% of its workforce.

Forget the marble-and-gold makeover of the Lincoln bedroom en-suite. The White House declines to reveal how much “We the ATM,” shelled out for that.

Forget the gold-lettered bronze plaques pillorying former presidents and extolling this one in the colonnade gallery.

Forget that, without notice or permission, the president razed the East Wing for his one big beautiful ballroom. It’ll be privately funded, he told us. Poppycock. As with his other projects, "We the ATM" are the major donors.

Forget the gilding of every surface everywhere, creating the ambience of the Golden Buddha’s vomitorium.

While the four Montanans “representing” us in Congress shrugged, Trump’s White House vanity projects alone hit us up for $39 million in 2025. Another $377 million is allocated for FY2026. That sum could have restored funding for Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes infrastructure ($75 million), the East Missoula Highway 200 Corridor ($24 million), Montana’s pandemic and health preparedness ($28 million), 86 AmeriCorps jobs ($1.2 million), and food sovereignty and assistance programs like the Montana Food Bank Network (untold millions).

The Independence Arch? The estimated cost for this 250-foot extravagance is $100 million. Funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities has already made a $15 million dollar downpayment on it ... in the wake of draconian NEH cuts ($100 million!) To congressionally approved funding for writers, scholars, universities, and museums, including Montana’s.

Don’t get me started on Trump Force One. Getting Qatar’s luxury jet up to presidential speed has already cost us an estimated $1 billion.

The White House cage match celebrating Trump’s birthday? Yes, private donors picked up the $60 million tab for the event itself. But tens of thousands of hours dedicated by seven government agencies for security and oversight of installation, tear-down, and repairs? "We the ATM" paid for that ... $12 million to the D.C. police alone! The Montana delegation yawned.

And for Exhibit A on wasteful, reckless, crooked government spending, take a not-so-deep dive into the never-ending reflecting pool controversy (but don’t touch anything!). The list of folly is mind-boggling: A contract awarded without competition for 6 times the estimated rate. A botched installation. An ill-advised presidential motorcade over the refinished surface before the pool was refilled. Algae reappearing within days. The new surface peeling. A passing Olympian charged with felony vandalism for indulging in a peel-feel. A Trump-appointed prosecutor skewering the Olympian in the public square only to file a 20-page “oops” last week and withdraw the charges.

"We the ATM" are picking up the $16 million tab for this fiasco — and that’s before the repair bill!— while Montanans struggle to afford gas, healthcare, housing, groceries, utilities, and education.

Do you really believe Kurt Alme is going to change our Republican delegation’s tune? Ask him where he stands on any of these vanity debacles. You won’t get an answer. Because putting a stop to them — or any of Trump’s countless malfeasances — does not require experience managing a budget. It requires the practice of assembling enough vertebrae to form a spine.

Republicans now smirk at the current disagreement this Senate race has created within the Montana Democratic Party. I’ll wear that smirk like a badge of honor. Because disagreeing requires a spine. Republicans haven’t shown one — or tolerated anyone else in their party showing one — for 10 years. And counting.