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The global rise of populism is having a profound effect on policies across many issues. We explore the potential effects on wildlife conservation using the western United States as a case study. Global populist trends have been explained through the phenomenon of cultural backlash, wherein those left behind in the value shift beginning post-World War II started to mobilize by the end of the century to protect their core values and traditions. Our prior work suggests that wildlife values in the western United States are shifting from traditional domination to mutualism orientations. The current study looked for indications of backlash from the American hunting culture that may be associated with that shift. Data from a 19-state survey (n = 12,673) revealed that, in states with a higher prevalence of mutualism, residents with domination values had lower levels of trust in the state wildlife agency. Traditional residents were also …