During his speech at the Libertarian Party National Convention on Saturday night, Donald Trump was booed repeatedly.
Many attendees yelled insults and denounced him for his COVID-19 policies, ballooning federal deficits, and fabrications about his political background.
Many jeered as he took the stage, but some fans cheered and chanted “USA! USA!” while sporting “Make America Great” hats and T-shirts.
It was a unique occasion where Trump faced his critics head-on, which is very unusual for a man used to holding rallies in front of adoring audiences.
Liberals, who are often suspicious of the former president, and his invitation to address the convention have divided the party. “If I wasn’t a liberal before, I’m certainly a liberal now,” Trump said in every joke, referring to the four criminal indictments against him.
Trump tried to praise “fiery advocates of freedom” and also called Joe Biden “the worst president in the history of the United States” and a “tyrant”, after which some in the audience began shouting, “That’s you “
After a while, Trump responded to the taunts by declaring, “You don’t want to win,” and suggesting that some Libertarians only wanted to “keep getting your 3% every four years.”
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Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate, received roughly 3% of the national vote in 2016, but Jo Jorgensen received slightly more than 1% of the vote in the tight race for 2020.
The libertarian convention ends on Sunday, and during that time they will select their nominee for president.
Additionally, Trump’s appearance offered him an opportunity to win over supporters of independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who spoke on Friday at the Libertarian convention.
For months, polls have indicated that the majority of voters oppose a Trump and President Joe Biden rematch in 2024.
That dynamic might increase support for an alternative candidate like Kennedy or the Libertarian nominee, whose candidacy has Biden and Trump’s allies worried that he might be a spoiler.
Trump persisted with his speech despite the boisterous environment, stating that he had come “to extend a hand of friendship” in opposition to Biden.
Supporters reacted with chants of “We want Trump!” but more people yelled, “End the Fed!”—a common cry among libertarians who are against the Federal Reserve.
Security dragged one person who was holding a sign that said, “No wannabe dictators!” away.
In an attempt to win over supporters, Trump promised to appoint a Libertarian to his cabinet, but many of them hissed in disbelief.
When the former president pledged to reduce Ross Ulbricht’s life sentence and possibly free him on time served, the founder of the drug-selling website Silk Road, he did receive a lot of applause.
That was intended to energize libertarian activists, who generally oppose criminal drug policies in general and feel that government investigators overreached in constructing their case against Silk Road.
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Many of the hundreds in attendance at Trump’s speech waved “Free Ross” signs and chanted the slogan while he spoke. Ulbricht’s case was a hot topic of discussion during the Libertarian convention.
Even after those assurances, a large portion of the audience remained hostile. Before the former president arrived, Michael Rectenwald, one of the candidates for the Libertarian Party presidential nomination, declared from the platform that “none of us are great fans of Donald Trump.
Following his address, Rectenwald and other Libertarian presidential candidates took the platform to mock Trump and his remarks.
Even the seating arrangements caused a rift between Trump supporters and opponents.
The first four rows of the audience were asked to be cleared out by libertarian organizers about two hours before the former president arrived.
They requested that convention delegates, many of whom claimed to have flown in from all over the nation and purchased pricey tickets to attend the events, be able to sit close enough to hear the speech.
In an attempt to defuse the situation, organizers eventually added more seats after many of the original seat occupants relocated.
Peter Goettler, the president and chief executive of the libertarian Cato Institute, reflected the division among libertarians over Trump when he wrote in a Washington Post column that the former president’s attendance went against the fundamental principles of the event and that “the political party pretending to be libertarian has transitioned to a different identity.”