The town of Latrobe, Pennsylvania has a few claims to fame. It’s the birthplace of Fred Rogers, AKA Mr. Rogers. Golf legend Arnold Palmer learned the game on local courses growing up. And each year, the town holds the Banana Split Festival celebrating an invention made in 1904 at a pharmacy downtown.
But if Latrobe has gotten national and international attention over the last few years, it’s been because of a local mother of eight and a dilapidated empty house outside town now known as The Trump House.
“I just did something silly,” says Leslie Rossi. “I painted a rundown old house.”
The two-story home is painted the colours of the Stars and Stripes. It also has a 4-meter metal stand-up of President Donald Trump out front.
During the 2016 election campaign, thousands flocked to it every month, just outside Latrobe in the village of Youngstown. People from as far away as China and Japan dropped by to take their picture with the giant Trump.
“I was sometimes here seven days a week, all day,” Rossi says. “I tried not to come too early in the morning because it made it too long.”
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Rossi and her husband are in real estate. The Trump House was supposed to be an investment. Instead, it still sits empty – but decorated.
Three years into a Trump presidency, Rossi is frustrated by the resistance and criticism.
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“Shut up already,” she says. “We voted for him. Let him do the job. He’s trying, and I’m proud of him.”
Rossi says she wasn’t political until the Barack Obama presidency. The local economy was suffering, with businesses going under and people being thrown out of work. She says jobs were disappearing and people were losing their homes.
When a brash billionaire from New York won the Republican leadership race, Rossi threw her support behind him. His bold and politically incorrect speeches didn’t bother her.
“It’s comical because I can relate to it. I feel like our president is just like us. I’m an everyday person.”
As news about the Trump House spread from down the highway in Altoona, P.A., all the way to Australia, the candidate himself took notice. Trump posted about the house Sept. 5, 2016, saying friends sent him a photograph and thanking the owner.
“Safe to say, they are on the Trump Train,” he wrote. “Thank you for your support.”
After Trump won, Rossi went to Washington, D.C. for the inauguration. She attended an event and was a few meters away from the president-elect. She grabbed Trump’s attention by yelling that she was responsible for the Trump House.
“He says ‘that was you? It’s really you?’” Rossi says. “He came right over. He said ‘that house is all over the world. All over the world’ and I said ‘I know’.”
The sign outside the house still says “Trump 2016”, but Rossi’s ready to change it in the spring. She doesn’t want to put up a new sign before the snow hits. But when the snow melts, the sign will read “Trump 2020” and Rossi will start spending her days at the house again.
“The economy is on the upswing,” Rossi says. “The last three years have been positive, so I think it’s going to be easier this time. I think it’s going to be great.”
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