IN 1960 Tom Keane voted for John Kennedy in the United States’ presidential election (“because he was Irish and Catholic”). The only candidate since then to fire him up is Donald Trump, for whom he voted in 2016. Mr Keane revels in Mr Trump’s mischief-making. What about Mr Trump’s notorious assertion that some Mexican immigrants are rapists? He “shoots from the hip”, Mr Keane responds. Such enthusiasm is common among supporters of the American president. But unlike most, Mr Keane lives in Mexico.

His home is in Ajijic, a village on Lake Chapala, Mexico’s largest lake. He volunteers at the Lake Chapala Society, which helps expatriates find friends and hobbies. He will go back to California “in a box with my feet first”, he says.

Mr Keane is one of 10,000 or so retired Americans near Lake Chapala, perhaps the biggest non-urban cluster of expatriate Americans outside an army base. The number doubles in winter. At 1,500 metres (5,000 feet) above sea level, Ajijic has Florida’s sunshine but not its humidity. Mr Keane is glad to be far away from California’s hordes of skateboarding youngsters. “That’s what I like about the cobblestone streets around here,” he says.

The village offers American comforts. Clergymen preach in English. A supermarket on the main street sells organic minestrone soup and gluten-free muesli. Prices are lower than in the United States.

Lake Chapala has long attracted cultivated foreigners. D.H. Lawrence wrote a draft of his novel, “The Plumed Serpent”, on its shores nearly a century ago. American intellectuals took refuge there from McCarthyism during the 1950s. Nowadays blogs that promote Mexico as a cheap place to retire are “attracting a different type of person”, says David Truly, a sociologist who lives in the area.

The newcomers are neither as highbrow nor as reliably liberal as earlier settlers, which causes tension. A Walmart that opened in Ajijic a decade ago still upsets longtime residents, who think it detracts from the village’s charm. Some recent arrivals have brought the United States’ polarised politics with them. Mr Truly detects “a real animosity” between Mr Trump’s opponents and fans.

No one knows how many American pensioners live in Mexico. In 2016 nearly 29,000 received American social-security cheques there, a rise of 24% from 2005. That probably understates the number. A lot of Americans are illegal immigrants, having overstayed their visas, but the authorities usually turn a blind eye.

With 10,000 Americans a day reaching the age of 65, the influx is likely to continue. Membership of the Lake Chapala society surged last year. Ajijic is not the only destination. In the nearby town of Chapala sun-seeking seniors stroll through a renovated lakefront park. Puerto Vallarta teems with aged foreigners. International Living, an American website, last year rated Mexico the world’s best place to retire abroad.

Though some Mexicans grumble about pensioners pushing up house prices, many welcome the trade they bring. Francisco García, a farmer from Veracruz, drives 12 hours a dozen times a year to Ajijic to sell coffee from the back of his truck. Occasionally, cultures confuse each other. An offer by a local charity manned by American volunteers to neuter stray dogs in Ajijic was boycotted by a church, which deems any contraception a sin.

One deterrent to mass migration is health care. Ajijic is cluttered with advertisements for dentists and plastic surgeons. A check-up with an English-speaking doctor costs 250 pesos ($13). But Medicare, the United States’ publicly financed medical scheme for people over 65, does not pay out south of the border.

Mexico’s government wants to attract more American pensioners and their dollars despite its tetchy relationship with Mr Trump. Although the constitution bizarrely bans foreigners from buying beachfront property, the government has left open a legal loophole that lets them do it. It has streamlined the issuing of residency visas. Javier Degollado, Chapala’s mayor, has commissioned a 28-page plan for tennis courts, golf courses and museums. Most Mexicans loathe Mr Trump. American visitors, of all stripes, are another matter.