LEWISTON — Doug and Linda Farrington stood on Lewiston’s 21st Street Saturday holding a sign that read “Tell queen Pelosi and left wing Democrates this is our country. We the people.”

The retired Clearwater Paper employees joined more than 150 people in a sign wave hosted by Nez Perce County Republicans for President Donald Trump.

“We’re very staunch Trump supporters,” Linda Farrington said. “We’ve worked all of our lives and we tell our kids, ‘Nothing is free.’ ”

The event was promoted on Facebook with a message that read in part, “Come on out all you big, strong conservatives. Learn some new cuss words and get the finger. Invite some narrow-minded homophobic, mysogynistic, Islamophobic neighbors. Get out and support President Trump.”

It came less than two weeks after Trump won acquittal in an impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate.

“(Americans) were sick and tired of impeachment in search of (a) crime, and, as you can tell, people in Idaho are psyched to support our president,” said Clinton Daniel, Region 2 vice chairman of the Idaho Republican Party and a regional director for U.S. Rep. Russ Fulcher, R-Idaho.

The participants at the sign wave said they had many reasons for backing Trump.

“My big thing is having a wall across the southern border,” said Farrington, of Lewiston.

When she visited New Mexico she saw bars across windows on buildings and felt that people didn’t feel safe.

“What I’m afraid of is my grandsons are contractors,” she said. “If we let those people come into our country and work for wages that are $2 an hour, what’s going to happen to my (grandchildren)?. ... I want them to come here, but I want them to come the right way.”

Gun rights are another priority for her.

“We’re both avid hunters,” Farrington said. “If they take our guns away, what’s going to happen? How are we going to protect our families and ourselves?”

Like the Farringtons, LeeAnn Callear of Orofino likes Trump because he wants to keep blue-collar men and women working.

She has younger relatives who are highly skilled construction contractors who lost so much business in the Great Recession they had to work in South Dakota. With Trump in the White House, their fortunes have changed.

“They’re doing really well,” said Callear, who is retired. “They’re training their sons. They’re all working hard doing the same kind of construction.”

The flag wave attracted a handful of counter-protesters, including Iden Gardner, of Clarkston, who held a sign that had a profane anti-Trump message and a heart.

“There needed to be one person to stand up against them and I wanted to be the one person,” said Gardner, a cosmetologist.

Several people informally confronted the counter-protesters. A woman invited them to a banquet for friends of the National Rifle Association. They declined.

“Shame on you for disrespecting the office,” one man said. “No matter who is president, you don’t disrespect the office. You disrespect this country.”

Another Trump supporter thanked them. “What makes this country the greatest ever is that we can say stuff like this about our president,” he said. “I respect the fact that you guys came out and stood up for your values.”

Williams may be contacted at ewilliam@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2261.