Former President Donald Trump addressed the Libertarian National Convention on Saturday, appealing for either the party’s nomination “or at least lots of your votes” come November.
Trump’s pitch was simple: “If we unite, we will be unstoppable.”
Given the close margins of presidential contests, Trump’s appeal makes sense for him. The party’s presidential candidate received over 1 million votes in 2020 and over 4 million in 2016.
“What is the purpose of the Libertarian Party getting 3%?” asked Trump. “What is the reason to take a chance of having this horrible president [Biden] destroy our country?”
He touted his own libertarian credentials, citing among his accomplishments as president the passage of tax cuts, criminal justice reform and “right to try” legislation expanding the availability of experimental drugs to patients with serious illnesses.
Given the non-interventionist bent of libertarians, he bragged that, “I took on the military-industrial complex. I broke the stranglehold of the neocons and warmongers on the Republican Party.”
He further railed against the federal Department of Education and racist DEI programs and vowed to appoint libertarians to his administration.
And to top it all off, he vowed to commute the federal prison sentence of Ross Ulbricht, who was convicted for running the darknet Silk Road website, which facilitated the sale of drugs. Ulbricht has become something of a libertarian cause célèbre, both due to his harsh sentence and libertarian opposition to drug prohibition.
Now, while all that he said above is music to libertarian ears, there are reasons why the Libertarian attendees generally responded with boos to Trump’s speech: Trump isn’t really a friend of liberty.
While Trump can cite some positive legislative achievements, like the ones he cited, he’s far worse on matters of trade and immigration compared to even President Biden.
Trump’s protectionist, tariff-imposing trade policy cuts against the libertarian goal of free trade. His restrictionist immigration stance and promises of mass deportations are contrary to the libertarian view that it should be much easier for people to legally live and work across borders.
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While he wants credit for not starting new wars, he sure did ramp up existing ones. He repeatedly vetoed bipartisan efforts from Congress to block U.S. support for Saudi Arabia’s brutal war in Yemen. Despite his past vows to end the war in Afghanistan, he actually ramped up the war as president, causing a massive spike in civilian casualties.
And while Trump might commute Ulbricht’s sentence — which he could have done as president before — he has said things which directly contradict any semblance of libertarian sensibilities on drugs. “We’re going to be asking everyone who sells drugs, gets caught selling drugs,” he said in 2022 as he launched his 2024 campaign, “to receive the death penalty for their heinous acts.”
Hence, it was no surprise Libertarians booed the former president and ultimately chose party activist Chase Oliver to be their 2024 presidential candidate.
“You are not a libertarian, Donald Trump,” Oliver said. “You’re a war criminal and you deserve to be shamed by everyone in this hall.”
