Tester flips Trump insult into campaign slogan

Sen. Jon Tester has leveraged insults from former President Donald Trump about his appearance into a new campaign slogan.

At an Aug. 9 rally on the Montana State University campus in Bozeman, Trump called Montana’s Democratic senator fat, saying that Tester has the “biggest stomach I have ever seen.” 

Tester responded last weekend with a series of posts on the social media platform X. 

“Big Sky country is big guy country,” one post stated, with the phrase emblazoned on a T-shirt. Sales of the $28 shirt go toward his reelection bid. 

Another post on X showed a photo of Tester on his farm and stated, “I might not look like most people in Washington. And that’s fine by me.” 

The post had been viewed more than 650,000 times as of Wednesday.

Trump’s insult was one of many critiques he threw at Tester during the rally to benefit political newcomer Tim Sheehy, a businessman picked by Republicans to unseat Tester. Trump said the narrow race is the reason he came to Montana to campaign. 

Throughout his speech, the former president claimed Tester votes with President Joe Biden "100% of the time.” 

“He’s a radical left lunatic,” Trump told the crowd. 

Congressional tracking from C-SPAN shows Tester has voted against the Democrat majority 14 times in the current session. Among those votes, he sided with Republicans on issues related to funding for the EPA and student loan waivers. In the prior congressional session from 2021-22, Tester voted against the Democrat majority nine times. C-SPAN's ideology ranking puts Tester among the most moderate senators in Congress. 

The November matchup between Tester and Sheehy has garnered national attention for its potential to flip the Senate into the Republicans’ favor.  

Sheehy spoke ahead of Trump at the rally last week, also taking time to criticize his opponent. 

“Jon Tester attacks my company every single day, and it’s disgusting,” Sheehy said. “He should be ashamed of that, just like he attacks my war record. And you know why he attacks my war record, because he doesn’t have one. He attacks my business because he’s never started one.” 

Sheehy, a retired Navy SEAL, started the aerial firefighting company Bridger Aerospace.  

Tester, who is chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, runs his own business out of his farm in Big Sandy.  

After the rally, Tester’s campaign team noted that he has won three close elections previously. He narrowly defeated Matt Rosendale in the 2018 election, and he beat Denny Rehberg in 2012 by a similarly slim margin. 

“Jon Tester is no stranger to tough races. He's won three in a row because he has a strong coalition of support across the state, including independent voters and Republicans,” a spokesperson for Montanans for Tester said.  

The Trump campaign also brought Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, to the rally stage in Bozeman to talk about an issue he has with Tester that surfaced six years ago. 

In 2018, Jackson, who was Trump’s White House physician at that time, lost his nomination to direct the Department of Veterans Affairs after reports of him freely giving out controlled substances were reported to Tester. 

"I can tell you, I can count right here on this hand, right here, how many times I prescribed narcotics at the White House in 14 years,” Jackson said at the rally. “[Tester] put that out there... He did not care. He was going to destroy me to better his career.” 

During his time at the White House, Jackson was reported to berate employees, make sexual comments and violated the policy for drinking alcohol on a presidential trip, according to a 2021 report from the Department of Defense inspector general.

At the time, Jackson referred to the situation as a “political hit job” for standing with Trump. 

Tester recently rolled out a series of campaign ads touting Republicans who support Tester, including an endorsement from former Republican National Committee chairperson Gov. Mark Racicot. 

“Jon’s strong record of defending Montana is why last week, Montana Republicans from across the state – from elected officials to business owners to Trump voters – endorsed Jon in his campaign for Senate,” a spokesperson for Montanans for Tester said in a statement.  

Reporter Kate Heston can be reached at kheston@dailyinterlake.com or 758-4459.