Republican lawmakers continue to face skeptical crowds at their town halls, with Donald Trump’s signature legislation emerging as a popular flashpoint.
At a Monday night meeting in Bolivar, Missouri, Rep. Mark Alford encountered pointed criticism from constituents who accused him of putting Trump’s agenda over local needs. One voter, Fred Higginbotham, told Alford he was “pissed” at both him and the president, calling Trump a “dictator” who “knows nothing about what he talks about.”
“You need to take your head out of Trump’s a** and start doing your representation of us,” Higginbotham said, to cheers.
Constituent: I am pissed, and I am pissed at you. The man is a dictator. He knows nothing about what he talks about. You need to take your head out of Trump’s ass. pic.twitter.com/B5m3Sx6qve
— Acyn (@Acyn) August 26, 2025
“You know nothing about what a working-class citizen does,” he added. “Come down here and start trying to pay your medical insurance. Come down here and walk into Costco to try to feed your family.”
Some of the loudest pushback came when Alford tried to defend Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.” Calling by the jargony name of “HR1,” Alford argued that the measure benefited working-class families and that cuts to SNAP were necessary. The audience responded with groans and laughter.
Analyses have found that the law disproportionately benefits high-income households and will result in millions of people losing their health insurance.
Another constituent asked Alford whether he had challenged Trump’s depiction of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as the “aggressor” in the war between Russia and Ukraine.
“I don’t have a close personal relationship with President Trump where I can go into the Oval Office and say, ‘Look, President, I hope you know that Vladimir Putin is the aggressor in this,” he said.
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Amid growing backlash, the Republican Party apparatus has urged its members to refrain from holding in-person town halls with constituents. The town halls that are held have become the scene of contentious and viral exchanges.
Rep. Mike Flood, R-Neb., was accused of supporting a “fascist machine” at a town hall earlier this month. Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif., was ruthlessly heckled at his first town hall in nearly a decade.
