While polling shows Wyoming remains President Donald Trump’s strongest bastion of support amid low national approval ratings, his recent criticism of data center opponents and decisions on beef imports are putting him at odds with many of his local supporters, potentially risking his favorability in the Equality State.
Last month, the Trump administration announced it would pause higher tariffs on ground beef imports, drawing swift criticism from conservative rural-state Republicans who say it will harm U.S. ranchers. Meanwhile, as concerns have grown in Wyoming over the proliferation of AI computing and data center development, Trump criticized communities recently for pushing back against such projects, warning that those who reject them risk becoming “backwards and poor.”
Both moves precede Trump’s national approval rating sinking to 33%, its lowest point in his political career, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll. The polling also indicated widespread discontent over high levels of inflation and little appetite among Americans for the war with Iran.
Meanwhile, a separate tracking poll of registered voters shows 54% of Wyoming approves of Trump. That’s considerably higher than the national average but an analysis by Newsweek indicates his popularity has fallen 25 points in Wyoming, one the biggest declines since Trump took office in January 2025.
Whether Wyoming’s support of Trump wanes, however, isn’t likely to come down to a single policy, according to Jim King, a retired University of Wyoming political science professor.
“The history of public opinion polling on presidents’ approval doesn’t show a single event will have an extreme, negative effect. It’s going to have to be more of an erosion effect over time, you know, one policy on top of another on top of another policy, where people feel they’re not being supported or represented,” King said.
That’s where “real severe changes in approval ratings” happen, he said.
Beef imports
Trump announced a plan in late August to allow more than 660 million pounds of ground beef imports to enter the country, saying it was intended to lower prices for consumers since it would be sold at 25% below market rate.
One of Wyoming’s longtime agricultural leaders told WyoFile he’s skeptical that’s how things will shake out.
“How do you make sense of that? I mean, the marketplaces determine the price,” Jim Magagna, vice president of the Wyoming Stockgrowers, said. “I’d be surprised to see that the price of ground beef in grocery stores changes one penny because of it.”
Magagna said the policy is one thing. Trump’s rhetoric around it is another, he said, pointing to cattle futures falling in light of the announcement since traders expected a surge of cheaper foreign meat to compete with domestic supply.
“That’s harmful,” Magagna said, since “markets react immediately in the short term.”
“In the long term, they tend to recover, and we get back to normal,” he said. “But short term, it’s negative impacts, and I think people are getting a little bit sick and tired of that.”
Still, Trump has also done things to help producers, Magagna said.
“We see it in the natural resource management arena, where we’ve seen very good things from this administration in terms of how we manage and are able to utilize federal lands for grazing,” he said.
Republican Sen. Ogden Driskill, a Crook County rancher and businessman, shared a similar perspective, saying that his opposition to Trump’s beef import decision doesn’t mean he doesn’t support the president.
“Trump Kool-aid drinkers have been coming after me,” Driskill said, because the state lawmaker challenged a decision “that cost people that are near and dear to me millions of dollars.”
“All of a sudden, they’re like, ‘Well, you hate Trump.’ It’s like, ‘No, you don’t get it. I support him overall on a huge amount of issues,’” he said.
While consumers deserve some relief from food prices, Driskill said, he questioned whether it’s “right to really penalize a sector of the economy that’s near and dear in Wyoming, so that you can buy some votes for consumers because you reduced the price of hamburger for 30 days.”
Driskill’s not alone in his position, either. GOP lawmakers, including Wyoming’s U.S. Sen. John Barrasso criticized Trump’s plan from the get go.
Data center development
Trump’s support for data center development isn’t an entirely new development, but the president has recently doubled down on his position that the U.S. must build more data centers to win the artificial intelligence race against China. His comments that communities that oppose data centers will become “backwards and poor” come amid a flood of proposals to build major facilities near cities such as Cheyenne, Casper, Wheatland and Evanston.
Meanwhile, recent Gallup polling shows seven out of 10 Americans oppose data centers being built in their communities. In Wyoming, that opposition has been split, while candidates aligned with the right-flank of the Republican party largely ran campaigns against data center development.
The most prominent of those candidates included Secretary of State Chuck Gray, a longtime Trump loyalist who bested eight other candidates in the Republican primary race for Wyoming’s U.S. House seat. Gray campaigned on a strict pledge to stop the building of new data centers and artificial intelligence infrastructure.
“In Congress, I’ll stop data centers,” he said in one ad. “No tax subsidies. No special treatment. No backroom deals for big tech billionaires.”
“If Silicon Valley wants to build their liberal empire,” he said, “they can do it somewhere else.”
Gray did not respond to WyoFile’s request for comment.
Wyoming continues with their lack of a moral compass. Perception of good works, but continued support of a pedophile rapist confirms a clear lack of respect or a moral compass
I think the general public is sadly apathetic to the dangers the Trump administration is putting the United States into. This administration uses fear and distractions to influence the electorate – at our peril. Folks should really pay attention to the facts of how our country and government is being changed and use the only tool, Voting, to put it back on course. Granted, for whatever weird reason, my native state likely won’t change its political leanings; so I hope the rest of the US will carry the ball before it’s irreversible.
Imported beef – a really stupid idea like most of Trump’s I’ll-conceived and poorly thought through ideas – won’t keep his Wyoming GOP base from continuing to support him. If they aren’t concerned with the huge scope of Trump’s destruction of our country and democracy, whether it be demolishing beloved Capitol structures or committing billions of taxpayer dollars to a war with no justification or plan, a few tons of imported beef won’t cause a ripple in the continuing adoration of his MAGA base. There’s Barrasso, sucking up as usual.
I read that WY, ID and WV were the 3 states that still supported trump, the Convicted Felon! Well has that working out for you all? What will maga supporters do after he is dead or impeached and removed, look for the next liar, cheater and grifter and say that is better than any Democrat? Yall get nothing in return, no meaningful Farm Bill, rural hospital shut down, Medicaid and SNAP cuts, and environmental policies that hurt the beauty of WY’s forests, rivers and wildlife. How does voting for the insane MAGA policies make WY great? It doesn’t!
I have the highest respect for the office of the President of the United States of America. However, I have absolutly no respect for the individual whom we have recently elected to execute the duties of that office. He is an embarassment to our country.
Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney was right. People will one day regret supporting Donald Trump. That day may be sooner rather than later. Everything is transactional with him, if it doesn’t make him money, inflate his popularity, or keep him out of jail, it doesn’t matter to him. His 90-day hamburger import gimmick is just an attempt to buy midterm votes from consumers and prop up his dictator friend in Argentina. He’s a New York City trust fund baby, who doesn’t have any real concern for livestock producers and takes their votes for granted. Same with the water and energy guzzling data centers. His big tech donors write him checks for supporting them, and he envies their wealth and wants to be in their billionaire’s club. So, when he says people opposing data centers in the places where they are being built will be “backwards and poor” without them, that’s what he really thinks of such people now. It’s not just about partisan divides. Americans, both Republican and Democrat, or any other label, deserve honest, ethical leaders, who serve the people with integrity.
The photo says a lot. Rick Scott, the guy involved with the company-but not charged- with medicare and medicaid fraud. The company he ran was fined over one $billion. Then their’s the so called President, who’s trying his best to destroy America while lining his own pocket. This guy would love, and is trying, to get rid of public land. Don’t forget the EPSTEIN FILES. There’s a reason he won’t release the files. Then there’s Barrasso. I won’t dignify him with the DR. before the name. He betrayed the ethics of do no harm. He approved RFK knowing full well he is a nut job. He did it to further his own political career. He’s a Trump sycophant.
Wow, I didn’t know MAGA Kool-Aid came in different strengths! That 200 proof stuff is a bit too strong for State Senator Driskill, but for the soon-to-be-elected (shudder) U.S. Senator HH, a good chug of the pure stuff must have made her change her mind from: “(He’s) a racist and a xenophobe”, to: “he’s one of the best presidents of my lifetime”.
Wait a second! Maybe being “racist and xenoph(obic)” is something like a badge of “courage and honor” in the Republican Congress.
Do folks in Wyoming have any concern about Trump costing them $4.50/gal for gas and $5.50/gal for diesel. Fuel costs are increasing the cost of everything. There’s no reason for it except that Trump has empowered Iran. Just like there’s no reason for the Canadian tariffs, which reduce exports and increase the cost of imports. Trump is failing the people of Wyoming, the U.S., and the world in many ways not mentioned in this article.
$6.09 for diesel in Sheridan yesterday.
Just came across a great bumper sticker. “Did you know that one out of three trump supporters are as dumb as the other two.”
Tina, Absolutely loved your post. That bumper sticker is priceless. Thank You
Yes, where can I get one?
eBay
When Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 he still had the approval of 50% of Republicans nationwide; so don’t expect much more disaffection from the Wyoming electorate. The best that can be hoped for is a lower noise level and a return to “MYOB”.
Trump’s purported ” popularity” among the Wyoming electorate is easily explained . Go by the numbers. In this monolithic state where the primary election determines the eventual victor, a candidate can typically win by getting less than 17 percent of registered Republican voters. The followup general election is just a formality. This happens time and time again , as it just did in 2026. The turnout of eligible registered Wyoming voters was only a net 33 percent. Even more exasperating are the 180,000 unregistered but fully eligible residents . While every vote counts in Wyoming , the unregistered nonvoters also help determine the outcomes in a perverse way. The Zen of it: not voting is also a vote.
Here’s how that pencils out. Do not narrow the numbers to being focussed on data centers and swinging beef. Widen the field to include immigration , gasoline , groceries, health care, housing , tariffs and Canada… reality. For Trump , his stated 54 percent of support among registered Wyoming voters is still far less than a majority or a plurality of the state population. Not even close. Claims of overwhelming support is illusory . Like Mark Twain’s quip about lies, dang lies, and statistics , the truth about Trump is real and hits hard . A strong case can be made that the majority of Wyoming residents actually disapprove of Trump, all things considered. That trendline is acceleratiing and its a tell. Trump and his policies have been nothing but bad for Wyoming for going on 11 years.
For Chuck Gray it’s far worse. I’m being exceedingly polite when I tell L’il Chucky straight up that 3/4th of his own party voted against him in the primary. Sure, he “won” but has way less actual support than the orange-tinted idol he patronizes. Neither of the two MAGA moguls have a mandate on anything , least of all voter fraud. Tune out the white noise. That we even let Chuck Gray get this far is … regrettable. But no mathematical laws were broken . In every survey or statistical analysis, by definition 50 percent of those polled are below average. It seems that’s where Trump’s and Grays voting bloc can be found.
My assessment is that should Chuck Gray manage to stumble forward into the US House , his effectiveness as a freshman Congressman will be very similar to that of George Santos , whom he resembles. Ignore his loud rhetoric – Chuck Gray will be worthless to Wyoming , in no way reflective of the vote counts that got him there. Not when we reckon the will of the voters as qualitative. We let the half that’s below average carry the day .
Trump and Gray may be ahead in scoring at the moment , but it’s only halftime. The final score on the first Wednesday in November might be an upset.
You deserve a beer for that one Dewey. Well done.
Two beers!
Agree!
Trump\MAGA can lose in a landslide in November, get impeached, convicted and removed by 2/3 majority and nothing other than his removal will change.
2028 could see Democrats take both houses and the WH, and the depth of the US bankruptcy will worsen.
We will simply have a different captain at the helm of a sinking ship telling the band to keep playing.
Amazing how the MAGA cult of Wyoming can so blindly believe in someone who has, over and over, shown his true self as a corrupt, self serving, vindictive, little boy (though I’m sure that his mental status is compromised by some aging/medical condition greatly at this point). I’ll never understand why “normal” Americans believe that millionaires and billionaires care about them in the least and that they have to defend them??? The people they defend only care about maximizing profits at any cost to the very people who made them rich.
Loyalty is not the same as blind loyalty.
The real headline should read “Trump’s Popularity Falling Rapidly in Wyoming” . A drop of 25% to barely a majority is significant given the super-majority enjoyed by Republicans in the state. While I under no delusion that Wyoming will start electing Democrats or Independents anytime soon, the pendulum seems to be swinging away from extreme right toward the center.
So, Chuckie is gonna stop the data centers. Just how is a freshman congressman gonna step in and stop anything. It would be great if he could but his statement just reflects his almost trump like egotisim that dulls the pain of his stupidity. He sold us out! Releasing every voters’ personal information to those who seek to stop free and fair elections was a criminal betrayal of trust. And as far as bareassho finally publicly disagreeing with trump remember Liz Cheney voted with trump over 90% of the time but at least she had the brains to see the absolute threat he is to our democracy. Our current Wyoming representatives to Washington refuse to acknowledge this very real threat and that is a danger to us all!
Liz was conservative when trump was still giving money to Hillary.
Thanks Maggie.
I am going to keep this short and sweet.
Trump is the most self serving and totally corrupt individual who has ever occupied the White House. His “administration” and inner circle of donors is full of billionaires who benefit directly from the “policies” that Mr. Driskill references. Trump has been a fraud and a con man his entire adult life, and why the good people of Wyoming can’t wake up to the fact that Trump and these people are stealing from them is beyond my comprehension. Also, this is one rare occasion where Mr. Guenter and I are in complete agreement on something. Your comment was on the money Chad.
Trump’s policies are hurting Wyoming in many other ways not mentioned in this article. The price of gasoline & diesel has nearly doubled due to the war with Iran. As many of us have to travel long distances to get groceries or see a movie at a theater, and we have little public transportation, we spend a greater portion of our income on fuel as other states. Groceries prices have shot up due to Trump’s tariffs, as well as other commodities such as auto parts, clothes and appliances. These tariffs are a disguised tax on us, as we must import what we can’t produce here. The resulting inflation has inhibited the Federal Reserve from lowering interest rates, so borrowing has remained expensive. We in Wyoming are being negatively effected by the Trump administration daily, but our support is still strong, which is on keeping with our Wyoming trait of loyal support, even if it is opposed to our best interests.
After one of the many letters I’ve written to the Powell Tribune in opposition to Trump, a reader responded that I’d been “drinking the Kool-Aid.” I feel vindicated, seeing a WY legislator (who claims generally to support Trump) refer to his MAGA constituency as “Trump Kool-Aid drinkers.”
Frankly, I believe, as Trump himself once claimed, that he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and still maintain a high level of support. I absolutely believe Donald Trump is a threat to democracy in the United States. The bigger problem, to my way of thinking, is the 33% of the population that are supportive of his agenda.
American’s are led to believe they only have 2 choices.
When Democrats are wholly unacceptable to half this country’s population, they will stick with the “alternative” no matter what.
Trump has done nothing to fix this countries broken system. “Drain the swamp” was replaced by filling the swamp, 40 trillion in debt and climbing, and “Drill baby drill” has us paying nearly 5 dollars a gallon for gas due to a “war” with Iran (if there actually is a war).
Apparently the administration is not calling it a war, because if they did then widows (or widowers) of fallen service personnel would get full benefits, and that does not appear to be the case.
I have been a resident of Wyoming for 54 of my 81 years as well as a graduate of the University of Wyoming (as were my parents and brother). Am I against government waste and inefficiency? Absolutely. However, the chaotic and random way in which cuts were made as well as savings gained is quite unclear. And where are those “savings” now? A war? A reflecting pond? Ballroom? Upgrading the White House Bowling Alley? ICE/National Guard Stationed around the country? I am also deeply disappointed that we no longer seem to have 3 independent branches of government.
How sad, the people of Wyoming support a felon, a guy that treats Women like you know what, a man (and I use that term loosely) that lies to all of us every day, and well, let’s not forget the EPSTEIN FILES. It really shows a lack of intelligence.