Trump adviser hounded by angry neighbors after he bought home on liberal island off Maine coast

A former Trump adviser has been hounded by neighbors after moving to a liberal island off Maine.

Leonard Leo, a conservative lawyer, has been credited with helping to reshape the U.S. courts and Republican politics.

His efforts culminated in Trump's first term with the appointment of three conservative Supreme Court justices, and the overturning of the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion ruling.

It turned him into a hero to conservatives and a villain to liberals.

In 2020 Leo and his family moved to Mount Desert Island, a tranquil and sparsely populated island off the coast of Maine.

It should have led to relatively anonymous life, but a refuge it has not turned out to be.

The conservative's presence - despite significant charitable giving to local nonprofits and big spending locally - has generated fissures in a place where over 70 percent of residents voted against Trump in 2024.

'It feels very personal,' Caroline Pryor, 65, who has lived on the island for four decades, told the Associated Press. 'He comes to a small quiet community in the very northeast corner of the country and does this evil, far-reaching work that is going to affect so many millions of people, but he wants to just live this anonymous, quiet life.'

In October, just two weeks before November's election, Pryor and a dozen other people, mostly women, gathered outside Leo's estate to protest during the island's annual marathon.

They came armed with a cartoonish life-sized puppet of Leo, a rainbow arch for runners to pass through, and blue and pink chalk with which they scribbled slogans including 'You Are Amazing, Leonard Leo Is Not' on the road.

The protesters also rang cowbells as a boombox blasted Dolly Parton, Taylor Swift and Queen songs.

'We are making people on the island aware of who he is, and they might question taking his money,' Mary Jane Schepers, one of the protesters, said as she urged runners to flip off Leo's home. 'They are taking dirty money.'

Leo, in response to a series of written questions from AP, said he 'had never really thought about' whether his move to the island would spur opposition.

He said: 'While I disagree with them and with what some of them do and say, they are people created by God with dignity and worth and their presence has been an invitation to pray for them.'

Leo, 59, and his family for decades had vacationed on Mount Desert Island, an idyllic isle known for its rocky beauty, windswept beaches and the famed Acadia National Park. It has a population of 10,000,

In 2018, he purchased a $3.3 million, 8,000-square-foot Tudor-style estate in Northeast Harbor, one of Mount Desert Island's wealthiest towns.

Some of the country's most influential and wealthy people - scions like John D. Rockefeller Jr., billionaires like Mitchell Rales and celebrities such as Martha Stewart - have sought privacy and anonymity on the island.

Backlash swiftly followed Leo's arrival.

The next year, protesters descended on his home as he hosted a fundraiser for Republican Sen. Susan Collins.

He soon drew more protests when he was invited to introduce the then-president of The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, at a nearby college, leading the institution to rescind the invitation.

The protests grew near the end of Trump's first term and spiked after the conservative-dominated Supreme Court in 2022 overturned the constitutional right to abortion.

Activists' initial goal was to convince Leo to leave but when that failed, they turned their focus to informing residents about the man in the Tudor-style mansion.

'He felt he could come here, and it would be a place to get away' from the negative attention he gets for his politics, said Murray Ngoima, a regular protester.

'We have managed to draw attention to what he is doing. And that is a problem for him.'

The protests have compelled Leo to step up security at his estate.

A protester was arrested in 2022, a confrontation with police that led to a lawsuit and $62,500 settlement over First Amendment violations.

Amid the protests, Leo has stepped up his charitable giving, telling AP that the activists have 'strengthened our conviction to be as active as possible in helping various institutions on the island.'

That has meant tens of thousands of dollars going to local nonprofits.

He and his wife, Sally, gave over $50,000 in 2020 to the Island Housing Trust, an organization seeking to boost the amount of affordable housing on the island.

The trust's annual giving report also listed Leo as a member of the group's leadership committee.

Similar donations were made over the next three years.

Leo and his wife were also listed as donors to the Mount Desert Island Hospital and the Northeast Harbor Library.

But some residents expressed suspicions about Leo's donations.

Protesters urged the groups to return the money and compared the donations to the way Leo has influenced Republican politics.

'He is a wolf in sheep's clothing,' said Susan Covino Buell, an island resident. 'We can't just act like he is a regular person in our community.'

Buell, 75, resigned her position on the housing nonprofit's campaign committee when Leo got involved with the charity.

She had tried to convince the nonprofit to reject the money 'because I just felt it was so tainted,' Buell said.

A group of anti-Leo activists also penned an open letter urging the hospital to return its donation because of Leo's role in ending federal abortion protections.

Mariah Cormier, a hospital spokeswoman, said the institution accepts 'charitable donations that aid in strengthening the health and vibrancy of our community.'

Leo dismissed the idea his donations were aimed at buying acceptance from a skeptical community, saying people 'can judge for themselves why I do what I do.'

It isn't just Leo's philanthropy that is controversial on the island.

His business at local establishments presents a quandary for shop owners and service workers.

Many said they oppose Leo's political positions, but they need his money to sustain their enterprises, allowing shops and restaurants that once closed during frigid winters to stay open longer.

Leo is such a sensitive topic that multiple shop owners declined to be interviewed by the Associated Press.

The devout Roman Catholic has also donated to the island's Catholic churches.

Sacred Spaces Foundation, a nonprofit that counts Leo as its president and sole member, purchased St. Ignatius of Loyola Catholic Church in Northeast Harbor for $2.65 million in 2023 from the Roman Catholic Bishop of Portland.

The church now holds one service a week during the summer, when Northeast Harbor is busiest.

Leo is a also a regular at another parish, Holy Redeemer, a large stone sanctuary in Bar Harbor where his wife is the head of the music ministry.

His presence has driven off some longtime congregants, residents said.

Lindy Stretch, an 80-year-old who converted to Catholicism at Holy Redeemer over a decade ago, left the congregation because of what she said was Leo's growing influence in the church.

;I just couldn't stand to watch that,' Stretch said.

Asked about people leaving the island church, Leo said he was 'thankful for every person who takes the time to come to Holy Redeemer and is striving to be in union with the church and Christ, regardless of what they do or believe in their private lives.'

Not everyone is upset about Leo's move to Maine, with Republicans in the state coming to his defense.

House Republican Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham, who represents a district just off the island, excoriated the protesters and hailed Leo for 'sticking to his beliefs and donating to the causes he believes in.'

Since 2020, Leo's network has funneled over $1 million to conservative causes in the state.

But those donations have only deepened the opposition to Leo among his most frequent protesters.

'He is succeeding,' admitted Bo Greene, a 63-year-old protester. 'We are making him uncomfortable. But he is still here.'