Retired airline pilot Mike Koskovich is on a one-man mission to get Donald Trump and Dan Sullivan reelected. He does what he can, when he can between flying to his cabin at Trapper Lake and maintaining his expansive Flysafe Bed-and-Breakfast that he runs with his wife Jayne.
With his bright red 1986 GMC three-quarter-ton pickup loaded with Trump and Sullivan signs, Koskovich rolls through Wasilla on a circuit that he calls his “trap line.”
Through the parking lots of major commercial centers in Wasilla such as AIH, Walmart, and Fred Meyer, and ending up at Wasilla Lake near the Parks Highway, Koskovich ends his route positioning his truck during rush-hour traffic and waves at people driving home.
“I’ve done this for a number of years,” Koskovich told Must Read Alaska, while he was on his route. He rolled with signage for Dunleavy for State Senate, and he rolled with signs for Sen. Dan Sullivan during the 2014 election. Now it’s all about Trump on one side of the truck and Sullivan on the other.
According to Koskovich, the reaction he is getting this year is more positive than ever. He gets plenty of honks and waves and only occasionally a middle-finger salute.
“I blow kisses at them,” he said. Generally, people are more excited this year than they have been ever before.
In Anchorage, it’s a different story for Trump supporters. They don’t put bumper stickers on their cars. They don’t put Trump signs in their yards. They don’t want their cars vandalized or their homes burned down.
The Trump support in Alaska’s largest city comes out in the manner of flags hoisted on trucks during rallies for the president — flags that can be rolled up and put away.
Joy Latham-Hahn was one of the brave ones. She and her husband are “undeclared” voters — they don’t belong to a party, but they’re strong constitutionalists who care about the country and do their homework before every election before voting.
Two weeks ago, Hahn’s husband was chased by a “very aggressive, angry, out of control angry man,” in Anchorage. “At a stop light, the driver (in a U-Haul van) blocked by husband … and went crazy because of the Trump/Pence sticker on his window.”
Then, at their College Village home, they discovered their Trump/Pence signs had been stomped on and stolen. After they repaired one sign and replaced it, it was shredded and the other Trump/Pence sign was gone.
“I will not let him replace it because I know the next step will be property damage,” she said.
Such is the response of many who spoke with Must Read Alaska about their qualms about putting up a Trump yard sign.
“We don’t want our house burned down,” said one Trump voter, a sentiment expressed by others.
Their fears are not unfounded. Longtime radial political pundit Keith Olbermann said this week on YouTube that Trump supporters were “maggots” that, along with the president, must be prosecuted and removed fro society.
“So, let us brace ourselves,” Olbermann continued. “The task is two-fold: the terrorist Trump must be defeated, must be destroyed, must be devoured at the ballot box, and then he, and his enablers, and his supporters, and his collaborators, and the Mike Lees and the William Barrs, and Sean Hannitys, and the Mike Pences, and the Rudy Gullianis and the Kyle Rittenhouses and the Amy Coney Barretts must be prosecuted and convicted and removed from our society while we try to rebuild it and to rebuild the world Trump has destroyed by turning it over to a virus.”
“Remember it, even as we dream for a return to reality and safety and the country for which our forefathers died, that the fight is not just to win the election, but to win it by enough to chase — at least for a moment — Trump and the maggots off the stage and then try to clean up what they left,” Olbermann said.
Koskovich has seen such hatred and has responded by wearing his MAGA hat everywhere he goes. It all started with the media witch-hunt against teenager Nicholas Sandmann, who went to Washington, D.C. with classmates to participate in a pro-life rally, only to find himself the object of a vitriolic media campaign led by the New York Times, Washington Post and CNN because of his MAGA hat.
After seeing what the media did to a teenager, Koskovich went online and ordered dozens of MAGA hats, and he gives them away wherever he goes. Most of the time, he receives a positive response for his hat, but at an airshow in San Bernardino, California, he was hassled by a Trump-hater. That was the only incident he could think of where someone was actually rude to him. Most folks compliment him by saying, “Nice hat!”
Koskovich, who is a Vietnam veteran, said that his family is spread far and wide across the United States, and is comprised of artists, oil workers, and people who work in agriculture from Florida to Oklahoma, and from Minnesota to Alaska. Between his siblings and his wife’s siblings, they all are supporters of the conservative movement — all 18 of them.
“I consider that a bellwether,” he said. “But we have numerous relatives in the Minneapolis area, and when we sent them photos of the truck, they told us ‘We don’t dare put up a yard sign.'”
For Koskovich, it’s a matter of taking a stand for his right to free speech.
“I believe so strongly in this constitutional republic, and you have to be proactive to ensure that we are able to retain it,” he said.
Too bad he swallowed the Kool-aid but here in the ” Dixie of the north ” with the enormous demographic shift caused by bible belt, military personnel who came up on a hitch and never left, it is to be expected. It saddens us to see anyone support a nincompoop like Trump who paid $750.00 in oncome tax while working parents struggle. I hope someday that history will teach Trump supporters to think of the facts but I’m not holding my breath.
Paid $750 in taxes? LOL. NYT / CNN have you right where they want you. Now see if you can go back and review all the facts around that story again and do a little better next time. I don’t want to do all the work for you but try looking up things like “tax credits” and see if you get warmer. While you are at it, let us all know if you would let Uncle Sam keep a legal tax credit you were owed. Ever? No? C’mon man. LOL
You don’t mention anything about Trump giving his salary to charity. He’s a good man not a troll like you. He’s also a businessman and as such is entitled to legal deductions. Don’t you let your jealousy cloud your judgment don’t let your hatred spoil your soul.
I fail to see how your Kool-aid is any different from anyone else’s Kool-aid.
Read the whole story and quit watching CNN it is not good to mouth off only with a portion of the facts.
Maybe you should move back to California or where ever you came from…take your liberal ideas with you
And here goes MRAK spreading the hatred with unsubstantiated stories about houses being burned down and innuendo about the horrible things that might happen if you put a Trump sign up on your lawn. In Alaska? Really?
What about Kyle Rittenhouse, and Charlottesville, and about 50 vehicular assaults on non-violent groups protesting various causes? And we should be worried about someone attacking our political signs?
Frankly, I am. That’s why I don’t post signs on my property that express my political leanings. I worry about the Trumpsters. They seem to becoming increasingly unhinged, like their master. Things weren’t that great before he got elected, but he has managed to foment divisiveness to potentially disastrous proportions.
We all need to take a deep breath, realize we are all in this together, and try to figure out how to work our way out of this mess. If we can’t do that, I fear for the future of the republic.
Thousands of violent rioting anarchists blocking traffic, burning homes and businesses, looting, destroying eateries and turning over the tables of peaceful diners and you are afraid of Trump? Ok. You do need to take a deep breath. Clearly we see two totally different realities.
Is that why I don’t see any Biden signs anywhere? Fear of the intolerant Trumpsters? Interesting theory.
You would do better if you lived in California. We really don’t need your one side views up here. Kyle was running away being chased with a skateboard to head and assaulted by your left. Self defense.
Thank you Mike Koskovich!! As a Tlingit Woman Republican, I receive a lot of criticism being a stout supporter of our POTUS. Sometimes to my face but mostly behind my back by family and friends. I commend you for doing your part as a proud and respectful American. First and foremost thank you for your service, so many forget that our freedom is not free thanks to you and the women who serve in our military. ❤️GOD bless America TRUMP/PENCE??2020 ✌??
The Sullivan banner up on our place of business is 60 foot long and 5 foot high , My wife and my entire voting family have voted for Don Young 24 times now and plan to do so again on November 03 and will all be voting for President Trump again this November. 99.9% of the folks that come to our shop are workers and the salt of the earth and I have yet to hear one of them make a negative comment to me or about the President….and the flag flies over our business everyday….as well as over the entry at my home.
“My wife and my entire voting family have voted for Don Young 24 times now and plan to do so again” I did once when first here and didn’t know from shoe polish. Shame on you!
There’s no shame in voting. The shame is when people don’t vote.
Nice truck!
Maybe you should move back to California or where ever you came from…take your liberal ideas with you
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