President Donald Trump lost Colorado pretty handily last November; former Vice President Kamala Harris took the state by 11 points. With that kind of comfortable margin, it’s easy to forget that more than a million people in Colorado voted for Trump.
And where there’s popularity, there’s a business opportunity.
In Monte Vista, a town 17 miles west of Alamosa in the San Luis Valley, a unique shop has capitalized on that opportunity. It’s a so-called “Trump store,” with memorabilia, campaign swag, lawn decor, and more, all dedicated to the legacy and administrations of the 45th and 47th U.S. president.
“This time last year, people were saying, ‘You’re crazy,’” store owner Carol Riggenbach told CPR News. “‘People are going to break your windows. They’re going to vandalize your building.’”
Riggenbach started the shop as part of her run for the state house. Her campaign strategy revolved around tying herself to the then-former president. But while her campaign was not successful, the Trump-themed store thrived.
The novelty sits in the middle of Rio Grande County — which went 60 percent for Trump — and became a hotspot for summer tourists last year.
“Texans absolutely love the Trump Store,” Riggenbach said.
After the first presidential debate in June 2024 against President Joe Biden, sales soared. When an assassin’s bullet grazed Trump’s ear in July, they surged again. Riggenbach took the store on the road, selling from a trailer in a parking lot in Pueblo. She said her inventory of Trump-themed shirts, hats and jewelry has turned over five times since opening.
The venture has been both a successful business endeavor and a point of pride for Riggenbach, who is a MAGA loyalist.
“When I see the big Trump flags stuck to the hay bales or the sides of the barns, oh yeah,” she said. “It feels good to know that we had a part in helping Trump here in the San Luis Valley.”
An endurance comparable to Trump’s base
The store sits in a building that dates back to the late 1800s. Its stone facade comes from an old quarry outside nearby Del Norte, and its interior now stands as a makeshift monument to the controversial president.
Inside, Trump stands as Captain America in front of a fiery explosion on one of many flags blanketing the walls. Another banner is a rendition of an American flag with pistols and assault rifles in place of the stars and stripes. There is a table stacked with MAGA hats. And in a glass case up front, sits an authentic pair of the golden Never Surrender high-top sneakers.
Notably, the store has endured. It’s Colorado’s only Trump-themed store — another in Loveland closed in 2021 after the Jan. 6 insurrection. It’s survived past campaign season and the election, but also through the new administration's many controversies, including tariffs and protests against the administration’s mass deportation program.
“I'm surprised it's still going,” said local resident Roy Aiken. “But then again, Monte Vista is a good place for it because this is a fairly conservative community.”
The fever pitch has died down since election day, with sales dropping even more following Trump’s inauguration. During one visit this spring, a scant few customers wandered the store. One woman bought a pair of Trump socks adorned with fluffy shocks of blonde hair.
Aiken described himself as “absolutely” a Trump supporter but said all the merchandise at the Trump Store felt a bit like "idolatry."
“I’m not a fanatic,” he said. “I voted for Trump because I just didn’t want Harris … A lot of people voted for Harris because they didn’t want Trump. We’re a nation running on negatives.”
“Oh, it’s slow right now,” Jerry White told CPR News. He’s an 82-year-old Vietnam veteran who helps Riggenbach run the store when she works her day job as a home health care provider. An active local Republican, White said, with sales slumping, he sees the store “as more of a public service at this point.”
“Not everybody's a customer, but they are curious,” he said. “They want to see what's in here, and they want to talk to me.” Sometimes, he said that looks like other seniors vying for White’s take on Trump’s latest headline-grabbing controversy. Sometimes it’s young Democrats looking to spar on political philosophy.
When it’s cold, they can sit around an old fireplace in the back.
“So, a lot of times I'll go home at night and my voice is strained from talking all day long,” White said. “But that's okay. It's a labor of love.”
If White does get too hoarse, he has pamphlets at the ready. Written by him, the selection includes a detailed “Conservative Manifesto” and one labeled “Democrat Accomplishments.” Other than the title, it’s a blank sheet of paper.
A curiosity in the San Luis Valley
Riggenbach has had “some real interesting people come in here yelling and screaming.” She’s had to ask them to leave. This summer, a man walked in the door and screamed “at the top of his lungs, ‘F… Trump!’”
However, she said conversations with Trump opponents have often been constructive. Apart from someone supergluing the store’s front door lock a couple months back, she said the fears of vandalism have been unfounded.
That doesn’t mean there haven't been hijinks.
Chris, a San Luis Valley resident who only provided her first name, hatched a scheme late in the campaign.
“It wasn't the most mature plan,” Chris said. “But, I wanted to put a lot of Trump-Vance signs in my friend's yard.”
Neither Chris nor her friend is a Trump supporter. Chris said the more she learns about the president, “the more I dislike him,” and that “I don't agree with having a felon in a position of power.”
To prank her friend, she “cleaned house on all the Trump signs” in the store. Chris said they were in her friend’s yard for all of ten minutes before he arrived from work and took them down. From there, “they went straight to the dumpster.”
“I didn’t want more Trump supporters having Trump signs,” she said. “I felt like I was doing a service.”
Tourists Donald and Sabrina Young stopped in Monte Vista on their way to Denver this June. They were on vacation after finishing with a Christian youth summer camp in their home state of New Mexico. They’re Trump voters. But they did not know about the store and were not itching to buy any merchandise.
“No,” Donald laughed. “No, (we’re) not in the cult of Donald Trump.”
The future of the store
With the election over and the president firmly into his second term, Riggenbach isn’t sure how much longer she’ll keep the Trump Store open in its current form. She owns the building and thinks she might reopen as a Trump-centric community center in the future.
“(Trump) has gotten young people involved in politics and watching what's going on instead of everyone being sleepy heads and letting the government just do whatever they're going to do,” she said. “People are paying attention.”
For now, she intends to take the shop on the road again and hopes the tourism season will prop up the business again. She said sales have picked back up this summer.
While popular across much of the valley, Trump’s return to the White House has brought its local challenges. Cuts to the federal workforce have led to layoffs of residents. The passage of Republicans’ “Big Beautiful Bill” and its cuts to Medicaid are causing profound concern in the region’s healthcare system. The six counties making up the valley rank among the state’s poorest. Medicaid makes up a significant portion of health service budgets in the region. In Alamosa County, for example, two of five residents are enrolled in the state’s Medicaid program.
Riggenbach remains firm in her support of the Trump Administration. She described the federal layoffs as a necessary component of rightsizing the federal bureaucracy. Despite running a home healthcare service as a day job, she said the cuts to Medicaid are an important effort to root out waste and fraud.
“I support taking care of people. It's what I do. I support it completely,” Riggenbach said. “But I also support us being a sound nation where we still can function in a few years and where we're not owned by China or whoever else is lending us the money.”
