There is no shortage of Trump-themed merchandise on the market. Former President Donald Trump himself profits off of golden sneakers and Bibles sold under his name. At any given Trump rally, opportunists hawk MAGA hats and Trump-branded koozies and American flags with Trump’s face. At last month’s Republican National Convention, an exhibitor hall adjacent to the arena was full of MAGA merch: One vendor sold a $75 cutting board shaped like the former president’s silhouette. Another sold a bound volume of Trump’s social media posts, titled “Collected Poems of Donald J. Trump.”
Now, on the border of Arizona and California, a business venture enters new territory: an RV park dedicated to Trump’s most faithful followers.
Nestled on Quartzsite, Arizona’s, main drag, the MAGA RV Park prides itself as “a place for free thinkers.” Unlike other nearby RV resorts, some of which boast swimming pools and showers, the MAGA RV Park is nothing more than a gravel lot with power hookups and a communal firepit. “Our best amenity is that people are like-minded,” said Cheryl Reid, who lives on-site and manages the property with her husband.
On a recent Friday, a faded hat hung on a chain-link fence near the entrance, the words TRUMP WON legible on the front. Several trucks had bumper stickers with Trump’s image. (STILL MY PRESIDENT read one.) The sign welcoming guests into the park carries a cartoon image of Trump.
“That’s the extent of our advertising,” said Michael Cole, the park’s owner, gesturing to the sign. And in terms of thematics, it’s the extent of his decorating: Cole put up the sign, and he lets visitors take care of the rest. The sign serves as a “filter,” said Reid, for visitors who want to stay around like-minded travelers. Reid, a Trump supporter, moved into the park in 2021 and has stayed there since.
To Cole, the park is less an ideological experiment and more a business one. When he purchased the RV park three years ago, he read that affixing partisan politics to an existing business would cut growth in half, but launching a new business attached to a political opinion taps into a preexisting consumer base and expedites growth. His first order of business, then, after purchasing Desert Oasis RV Park in 2021, was stripping the generic name. Within days of the new sign going up, Cole had 15 to 20 people pulling over to take pictures per day. Within weeks, the park’s 13 lots were sold out. “A $200 sign goes a long way,” he said, chuckling.
Three years later, the RV park is getting its first taste of an election year. While Quartzite is in its offseason — the town’s population balloons past 200,000 during the winter months, when “snowbirds” drop in for RV shows — Arizona is an electoral battleground. And while Quartzite’s other, larger RV parks are mostly empty in late summer, the small MAGA RV Park is near capacity: 10 of its 13 lots are currently occupied by long-term tenants.
“A majority of the people who come here love the name and want to stay,” said Reid, who manages the park’s day-to-day operations with her husband. “People like having neighbors who think like they do.”
Quartzite, population 2,000, has many claims to near-fame. It goes by the “RV capital of the world”; but so does Elkhart, Indiana, where one of every two RVs are manufactured. It calls itself the “rock capital of the world,” a nod to its gem and mineral shows, but so do several other cities. And it claims to be home to the “world’s largest belt buckle,” stationed outside a trading post on Quartzite’s Main Street. Guinness, however, says the world record-holder is in Dallas.
But nowhere else, not Elkhart or Dallas or any other city, can claim an RV park exclusive to Trump’s most devoted followers. In Quartzite, it works. In the winter months, when the snowbirds arrive, “Quartzsite may be the most eccentric place in the country,” wrote the Los Angeles Times, “a weird Western outpost where ‘tea party’ retirees mingle with cigarette-rolling rock hounds and white-haired hippies — and where no one bats an eye at a bare-bottomed bookseller.”
“It’s a quirky town,” Cole told me. “So I thought, ‘why not?’”
In a twist of irony, though, the man set to profit most off of the park — its owner and founder — doesn’t fully drink the Kool-Aid. “I’m not as political as you might think,” Cole told me. He described himself as a Ron Paul Libertarian — certainly “on the right side of things,” he said — but he expressed disappointment in politicians in general. Does that include Trump? “Yeah, I guess so,” he told me.
During Trump’s first campaign, Cole was more of a believer. He attended several Trump rallies in Phoenix and cast his vote for him. But he was disappointed when Trump didn’t go through on some of the promises he made on the campaign trail, including building the border wall.
“I’d rather have Trump in office,” Cole said. “But I’m not sure it affects us all too much out here. It’s, unfortunately, the lesser of two evils.”
What is it that draws people out to his RV park, instead of staying at similarly priced lots nearby without the Trump sign? What is it about Trump that commands such a following? “They’re all projecting their hopes,” Cole told me. “Look, they’re great people. They are quietly, desperately hoping he’s the one to carry us to the promised land.” He chuckled. “We can all hope.”
