Republican former President Donald Trump will address Libertarian delegates at the upcoming Libertarian National Convention in Washington, D.C., later this month. According to the party, this will be the first instance where a former President will directly address members, candidates, and leadership.
“Join us for a historic moment at the 2024 Libertarian National Convention as we welcome former President Donald J. Trump to the podium,” the official website for the Libertarian National Convention reads. “This momentous occasion will mark the first time a former President directly addresses our members, candidates, and executive committee. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear insights from a prominent figure in American politics and watch him engage with Libertarian ideals.”
In addition to announcing Trump’s attendance, the convention site also asks Libertarian Party members attending the convention and those interested in Trump’s participation to make a ten-dollar donation to vote in a poll to determine which topics Trump will address. Additionally, the site is selling Trump-specific merchandise in what it refers to as “The Don Collection.”
Editorial note: Shortly after publishing this article, The Don Collection was removed from the Libertarian National Convention website. An archive of the website showing the collection is available here.
Last week, the Libertarian National Committee Chair Angela McArdle reached out to Donald Trump, formally inviting him to the convention in the interest of communication and so that he could address delegate concerns. She also extended invitations to Democratic President Joe Biden and independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“While we are our own distinct Party and have our distinct views on how this country should be run, we do think it’s important to communicate with leaders of other parties and people who hold great sway over the course of history,” she wrote in her invitation. “We have a list of concerns that we would like to share with you regarding your positions on governance and invite you to respond to us in person at our national convention.”
As of Wednesday morning, Trump is the first to accept the invitation. Readers can view the full invitation in an earlier article.
RTAA – i am a California Libertarian, and I objected to having Jill Stein, Cornel West and RFK Jr speaking at our Convention. I am sure many others did.
I for one do not see any downside to rescinding the invitation to the Magalomaniac. Less downside than the association with Trump that will occur in people’s minds if he is mentioned in connection with the Libertarian Convention. Inviting Donald Trump indicates a serious lack of seriousness concerning liberty vs statism and it will be hard to remove the stink of the Russian stooge from our image in the near future.
Our only hope after that is that people don’t have long memories.
Seebeck, you can find a formatted version of Wagner’s rant at third party watch.com posted as an article. Also, cancellation risk or people who don’t realize Trump won’t be there in person is significant – you’re going to play chaos with your reservations. Then again, chaos may be a good thing. And you’re right about bad behavior. The name of the freaking thing is become ungovernable. That’s the theme. It’s likely to be an accurate prediction of what the attendees will do. Especially if the impossible happens twice and Trump really shows in person. But, even without Trump it would be chaos.
It won’t be Chicago 1968, because without Trump, the mini melee might get covered on the Washington Examiner. With Trump, they will make it all the way to gag on Daily Show and SNL status. It’s not tens of thousands of people or anything like Chicago 1968, or Chicago 2024 when the untifada will come to town. The untifada won’t notice the libertarian convention, unless maybe due to Trump…maybe.
Kraus is about the only one who understands what’s actually happening here. In reply to his question or uncertainty,the TRUMP video is due on May 23, the first day of the convention. So no, trump won’t be debating Whatshisname or Whothat. But he’ll raise their profile considerably, negligibly at his own expense.
Seebeck, you seem to have a very outsize view of lp importance , even to the libertarian movement, much less the election. It’s like the New Yorkers view of the world map: 8th ave, 9th ave, 10th ave, 11th ave, Hudson river, nj, pa, flyover country, .ca, Japan, China, Australia, India, Arabs, Russia, Israel, Africa, germany, France, England, Ireland, Vikings.
It’s a convention of a few hundred people to pick a sub 1% presidential nominee from people even their own mothers forgot giving birth to. Oh and fight over how many angels on a pin and meaningless internal office so they can spend the next two years voting each other on an off committees, writing each other reports, calling each other names, revising their own committee policy manuals, becoming dueling grand wizards of some guy’s stupid rules, and other dumb crap like that.
You can run an LP booth at a much larger libertarian event like Freedom Forum or Students for Liberty conference and be ignored or laughed at. Trump could take the main stage at those, and has.
Trump could talk to more people by walking down the street after court in Manhattan.
They don’t swing the election, because they 0.2% would come almost half at the expense of Biden, so their swing impact is more like 0.02% in swing states.
Kennedy, Stein, West, and Randall Terry will get more media than whoever they nominate, so NOTA would be wise.
Why elevate their profile 100x by addressing them? Trump does not need the lp convention to address libertarians. Or independents. He has ubiquitous media coverage. He can go to much larger libertarian gatherings, appear with Rand Paul and maybe Ron Paul, post pro libertarian messages on truth social , do libertarian media, go on Alex Jones, interview in Reason and Lew Rockwell and antiwar.com, and so on.
Without TRUMP the lp convention may get delayed long form highlights on cspan and 15 seconds snippets on FOX. There are many, many more ways for Trump to reach independents and libertarians than by going to an otherwise nonevent.
It’s only a coincidence that the event is in DC. There won’t be a lot of district residents there. Or for that matter the suburbanite as well as district resident people you might mean – policy groups, lobbyists, power broker’s, national media, think tanks, single issue groups, elected officials. Just a few hundred folks from around the country who hold no political power in DC or back home . The lp had an office inside the beltway, that you could walk past and not know it’s there, where half a dozen people made like busy little beavers. They don’t even have that anymore. You’re not addressing anyone who is anything in DC by going to that, just a bunch of tourists at a hotel.
Meanwhile lp virtual hq is selling Trump merch…
https://reason.com/2024/05/02/l-a-beats-nyc/
I didn’t ask why the lp would do this. It raises their profile a thousand times over. Like, duh.
Why Trump would do it is still mind boggling. Your replies aren’t remotely realistic. And yet it’s still happening.
Maybe.
My money at this point is still on canned video or cancellation as the two highest likelihood outcomes. We’ll see in 3 weeks.
Reality:
Why would Trump agree to do this?
Well, I can think of a few reasons.
1. He’s trying to improve his non-D/non-R turnout (meaning L, G, independents, others) to bolster his numbers and show he’s more than a one-faction candidate.
2. Draining the Swamp is very libertarian, he knows it, we know it, and he sees an alliance there, especially if he gets re-elected and gets it right the second time. Who better to talk to about that than the ones who have been calling for it for the past 50+ years? (Hint: This is why the LP needs a PROGRAM!)
3. He may see it as a relatively friendlier crowd than the usual DC liberal cesspool.
4. He may see it as an opportunity to tailor his own message towards a less-than-home-team crowd, which can benefit him on his campaign after his own nomination is concluded.
Now, let’s flip it over.
Why would the LP do this?
Again, I can think of a few reasons.
1. This was a publicity stunt that had an unexpected response, so now it’s run with it and make the best of it. When the invitations were first announced last month, I suggested to the COC that they have life-size cardboard cutouts of Trump and Biden if they didn’t attend (and in Biden’s case, the cutout would be an improvement!) to double down on their absence.
2. The publicity. It’s only bad PR to the detractors who would complain about anything the LP does, and that’s mostly from the statist left and MC naysayers. This puts a huge spotlight on the LP at its Main Event, in an election cycle that really is a mash of 1892 and 1968, and we’re the James Weaver. That spotlight gives us the full opening to put the libertarian philosophy out there for everyone to see in a massive manner that it hasn’t had before.
3. How many times would the opportunity for this to ever happen arise? Never before. Take advantage of it.
Are there risks? Sure.
1. The delegates could act like petulant infants instead of dignified adults, getting themselves arrested and causing the entire convention to be shut down in a worst-case scenario. But so could planted agents provocateur, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that is tried. Bad behavior is the biggest risk to the LP, as it could reputationally smear the LP just as bad as 1968 Chicago did to the DP, and badly squander the opportunity. High risk, high negative.
(Keep in mind that in DC, both recreational and medical cannabis is legal for up to 2oz, but not on federal land.)
2. Trump could cancel. That’s a real possibility considering his legal cases, but if he does, then that’s no harm to the LP except for a scheduling hole outside of the business session. Medium risk, low negative.
3. The LNC could try to rescind the speaking slot as Hagopian is trying to do as of this morning, but that would do far more damage to the LP than Trump speaking, because that sends the message that the LP is not to be taken seriously at all because the invite really only was a publicity stunt and then it went, “Oops, nevermind!” instead of following through. High risk, high negative.
Does this speaking slot mean the LP is endorsing Trump? No. Can’t say it any clearer.
Does it mean that libertarians are really just Republicans who want to smoke weed, to quote liberal blowhard Thom Hartmann? No, and I say that as someone who has never been Republican or Democrat and has never touched a joint.
Does this mean the death of the LP? No, unless you want to stay in the minor leagues as a large coffee klatch.
So rather than complain about it, in the next three weeks, let it play out and see what happens, not undermining it, hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst without causing the worst.
Wes:
Please repost your comment as the current posting is a format nightmare and is unreadable.
That’s not a comment on content, just layout.
Ryan:
Trump is not and will not be the Libertarian nominee, so no issues there.
From the rumors I’ve heard, a NOTA speech, while unlikely to win NOTA the nomination, will instead be used to point out the relative flaws of the Libertarian candidates (and there are plenty to go around from my own analysis–none of them are perfect!). I’m not sure that’s a good idea, but it’s not my speech, either.
But a NOTA win could indeed impact some ballot access.
Sean O:
The Washington Hilton has a long history of dealing with this tye of thing, so I don’t think it’s any issue with them. Remember, this is the location where Hinckley tried to kill Reagan in 1981 and in an unintended consequence launched the modern gun grabber movement. There has been hundreds of Presidential visits there goig back to the 1970s. The hotel knows the drill.
The problem is that most libertarians don’t.
The real issue at play is how will delegates behave themselves, both on camera and off when all of that is in play. Bad behavior like booing Trump instead of polite applause, constant interruptions, and even some people probably trying to commit acts of violence (like throwing things and similar which will not be tolerated by the security detail) but also make the Party look bad in a very bright public spotlight, possibly the brightest it has ever had. If the Libertarian Party wants to play in the big leagues, it needs to act like adults, not insolent children. That means in this case showing respect for the office and the person, even if we disagree with his policies, rhetoric, or behavior. As a party of individualism, we can do no less, and we should expect no less from ourselves and each other.
In short, the die is cast now, and the only things that can screw it up is Trump canceling or bad behavior by people who should know better.
Have you read the Ballot Access News thread about this? Many interesting thoughts about this there which should be discussed here too.
BTW Anyone who still thinks the Orange Man is actually going to show up & speak to a room of perhaps only 300 people is delusional. He is playing Angela & having a damn good time doing so. He “might” send a video which will simply be a campaign ad. Anyone who is stupid enough to buy a basic package just to see trump deserves whatever 1 min video they get. And when will he speak? During the Presidential Debates? About the ONLY way I would every support this goon speaking anywhere near the LP Convention would be a) if it was an “outside” event sponsored by a PAC or other outside group completely removed from this LNC & b) If Orange Man agreed to debate the LP’s Presidential Candidate – which means this would have to be done Sun not Fri or Sat.
A boycott is pretty self-defeating. You’re removing those people’s votes for chair and presidential nominee.
The guy that invited all those people to speak at the California State Convention RTAA is the same guy that mid-term was appointed to the LNC to fill a vacancy and to run the Convention Oversight Committee, then resigned a couple months ago, I guess seeing the work he cared about done. Adrian Malagon is an entryist, I imagine some online research where everyone leaves a footprint will demonstrate that.
Past Chairs Call for LPO Boycott of LNC 2024
The Libertarian Party of Oregon must boycott the 2024 Libertarian National Convention.
For the convention organizers to invite the Presidential candidate of another political party to speak at our
nominating convention would be wholly improper at any time. For them to invite former president Trump is
shocking and appalling.
Trump is the antithesis of every core principle of Libertarianism. During his term in the presidency, Trump
demonstrated his manifest unfitness to address our convention:
? He sharply raised tariffs, which increased the taxation of imports and started a trade war that imposed
unnecessary burdens on American consumers..
? He suspended large swathes of what few legal immigration programs existed, and directed the
agencies of the Federal government to engage in performative cruelty against immigrants who entered
the country without legal sanction.
? He selected Supreme Court Justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade, enabling state governments to
interfere with women making anguished decisions about their healthcare.
? He openly admired and praised such murderous dictators as Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and Rodrigo
Duterte.
? He sent anonymous jackbooted thugs to the streets of Oregon’s largest city to escalate violence, snatch
people off the street into unmarked vehicles, and suppress opposition to his policies.
Add to this his desperate attempts to cling to power by summoning his cult of shock troops to Washington to
violently overturn our Constitutional Republic, together with his vow to act as a dictator on day one if he is
elected to a second term, and it is difficult to imagine a less suitable person to invite to the podium at a
Libertarian nominating convention.
The recent history of the Libertarian National Committee evokes the old parable about a Nazi sitting down at a
table where eleven other people are sitting… if they don’t send him away when he raises the swastika, what
you have is a table with twelve Nazis. There is no Libertarian tent big enough to accommodate determined
statists such as the former president.
The Libertarian National Committee may have decided to hand over the national party to the cult of the
omnipotent state, but the Libertarian Party of Oregon has the option to refuse to sit down at the table they have
prepared. We urge you to exercise that option.
Jeff Weston
Chair, Libertarian Party of Oregon, 2009-2011
Wes Wagner
Chair, Libertarian Party of Oregon, 2011-2015
Lars Hedbor
Chair, Libertarian Party of Oregon, 2015-2017
Kyle Markley
Chair, Libertarian Party of Oregon, 2017-2019
Steven,
Jill Stein, Cornel West, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. all spoke at the California LP convention. Does that bother you as much as Trump speaking at the LP convention?
Especially considering that the LP also invited Biden to speak. They didn’t single out Trump.
I see these stunts as the LPs (state and local) signaling that they are major players on the political scene. “Look at the people coming to woe us! We must be important!”
Not my monkeys, and not my circus, ever since the results of the May 2022 convention ended 11 years of continuous supporting membership in the LP – but this pathetic stunt should put a final nail into the LP’s coffin for anyone that is even slightly against authoritarianism, as far as I’m concerned.
Could the LP snag Marjorie Taylor Greene now? It’s in DC, and I heard she works there. They already have the Q Anon Shaman, and now Trump. She could take their presidential nomination, since most states do not have fusion.
Sean O: to make things worse, it’s in DC. But you’re assuming Trump’s speech in three weeks will be in person. I see no reason to assume that. It will probably be by video, maaaybe live, more likely prerecorded.
As I understand it, the LNC is currently in the process of approving an AV contract, so that should be feasible. I’m not up to the minute on vote totals, so it may even be approved already.
Can we get a gag order on Angela McArdle? It is hard to believe a national chair could be this embarrassing to The Libertarian Party – and that is after several previous chairs embarrassed us.
In 2004, the LNC invited Richard Viguerie to address the National Convention – an embarrassment and a waste of time. But having the Russian stooge address our convention is disgusting and immoral in the way all irrational actions are immoral.
Trump will either send a canned video or cancel. He may also have to cancel due to matters not up to him involving judges and courts.
I do have to give RTAA points for being right, and myself wrong. I’m rarely surprised, and I’m surprised. Why would Trump want to give them attention and publicity? It makes no sense. But, it’s not just a rumor – they’ve done a press release about it. It’s May 1, not April 1. I just got done checking to make absolutely positive.
The MC represents the strain of libertarianism that I resonate with least, and I wish Trump (and Biden) would both retire now.
Still, this seems like an effective publicity stunt. My guess, though, is this will be largely negative publicity.
“Who is nominating NOTA?
There are only rumors. Stay tuned.”
I’ve seen it broached he could get the nomination which I don’t see at all due to:
1. ) He doesn’t need it. He’s on the ballot.
2.) The GOP does not want fusion where Libertarians get electors. (See California AIP in 2020 that wanted to nominate Trump and were told no. In 2016, they nominated Trump and got 5 of the electors from the GOP.)
3.) Most importantly, he’s never going to put himself up for a vote where he could potentially lose to the likes of Chase Oliver or Lars Mapstead.
Therefore, I think the goal is for him to be on stage saying “I’m a libertarian” whether it’s true or not, he gets goodwill from libertarians that want libertarianism and the party to be more like him (unfortunately I know some), and then the NOTA for President vote occurs where if it succeeds it will ruin future ballot access in several states.
My understanding, and this could be wrong (fingers crossed), is that the Secret Service is authorized to charge venues for it’s (in cases like these mandatory) protection services. Staffing, metal detectors and other mobile threat detection/mitigation equipment fees, supplemental police support at the perimeter, venue staff background checks, traffic enforcement, filing fees for road closures, etc etc. I hope I’m wrong, as this would probably push LP National deep into the red, maybe just for the ‘we might make gas money out of this’ convention, but possibly for the entire savings account.
I also hope The Chair cleared this with the venue ahead of time and didnt just, you know, use the power of the domestic security state to seize the building and it’s grounds without the owner’s consent. I’ve been at the north DC Marriot while Clinton was there, it’s a huge pain for guests when the Secret Service’s mobile security force shows up. Like, a “we can prove approximate financial damages” level of pain.
This is just…. incredibly stupid. The Secret Service has to deal with hundreds of people preselected for behavior outside society’s normative average and who want to condense or eliminate the state. The LP attendants will have literal sniper cross hairs on them constantly and deal with what is essentially an Uber-TSA. If the chair, who is busy from running the LNC and a personal business and her own RAtWM thing and the Conference and a campaign for reelection and is serving as the Party’s primary mouthpiece hasn’t performed due diligence (and how COULD she at this point?) they’re risking a lawsuit from the venue, or a bill from Homeland Security that’ll bankrupt the operation, or having state delegates ejected from the convention at the whim of the federal government, or…
It’s a high risk play, and outside of further disincentivizing half of the libertarian leaning population from having anything to do with the LP, I don’t see what’s to be “gained”.
Who is nominating NOTA?
There are only rumors. Stay tuned.
Has anyone from the Trump campaign confirmed his acceptance of the invitation to speak?
Hi Root’s Teeth are Awesome,
Thanks for letting us know. It could be a holdover from when the site was swarmed by bots earlier in the year and had to migrate to Cloudflare for additional security measures. We’ll follow up with our host to see if it’s something related.
So who is nominating NOTA for President?
Hah! I predicted in a previous thread that Biden wouldn’t address the LP convention, but that Trump might.
BTW, I’d like to reply to some comments by cutting & pasting their remarks, but I find that Windows’ cut & feature doesn’t work on IPR. Why is that?