In a video received by Independent Political Report earlier today, former Libertarian Party Vice-Presidential nominee Wayne Allyn Root (who ran with 2008 presidential nominee former Congressman Bob Barr) claims credit for “masterminding the suicide of the LP” as a result of his role in arranging the speech by former President Trump to delegates attending the 2024 Libertarian presidential nominating convention.
As Mr. Root claims, “No one knows the Libertarian Party better than me.”
A partial transcript of his remarks follows; a link to the full video can be found below.
ROOT: Trump did something historic last Saturday. It’s long forgotten; . . . He was willing to address a hostile audience, get boos, but in the end brought the House down. . .
It was my idea, my brainstorm. . . No one knows the Libertarian Party better than me.It all started with a text last January to President Trump. . .
My game plan was perfect. I wanted him to . . . win over small L libertarians . . . mostly Goldwater-Reagan conservatives, like me.But the actual delegates at the convention, and I know this from my days, are like 51 percent hardcore woke-left.
My theory was that Trump’s appearance would make these lefties go insane, implode, get drunk – because they all drink in the middle of convention – boo, make fools of themselves, and then go and commit suicide.
To spite Trump, the next day, they named a woke, ultra-left, gay presidential nominee.
The Libertarian Party committed suicide. Why would I want that? . . .
No conservative in America will now vote for the LP. (The LP) will only now steal Democrat votes from Biden.
Brilliant strategy, if I don’t say so myself.
The full video can be viewed at the following link (Mr. Root’s comments about the LP Convention occur between time stamps 34:45 and 37:05).
No, Trump does not want another big ego VP. He wants someone servile and obedient who does his bidding, takes the fall, lavishes him with endless praise and flattery, and if female perhaps also submits sexually in a free use sort of fashion, or if male offers up his wife and daughters to the boss. Ideally, also, someone wealthy who will self fund the campaign as VP while Trump makes no personal donations to his own campaign.
Trump doesn’t like to command minimes who might reflect the limelight. He likes to command obedient sycophants who salute, say yes sir, and do as they’re told.
The narcissist ticket – featuring a high-functioning RINO and a dysfunctional LINO.
Seebeck: But Root is always first and foremost about Root. He’s a poster boy textbook narcissist that may even dwarf Trump.
Root would be the ideal running mate for Trump. A sort of Mini-Me.
I think he may be telling the truth. It’s possible that Trump got the stupid idea to ask to be invited from Root. If so, Root didn’t do Trump any favors. It was a dumb move on Trump’s part. As for the idea that Trump speech was why Oliver was nominated, that seems way off. If anything, it caused more anti Oliver delegates to attend.
If any one thing caused Oliver nomination, it was Rectenwald eating a cannabis gummy at a bad time. It may have played out differently without a Trump speech, but the nomination would have likely been the same.
The LNC results, however, may have been very different. So, maybe Root saved Mises bacon. If so, it is highly improbable that it was on purpose. While they’re both right wingers, Root and Mises Caucus seem fundamentally different and unconnected to me. If there’s a common thread, I don’t see it.
Root? Is still relevant to anyone but himself and his three followers at Newsmax?
Reality is that he’s full of shit.
And everyone knows it.
I dealt with him while fighting Top Two in CA in 2010. It was a necessary alliance that failed because of the idiot Democrats in California, not from the extraordinary efforts of the LPUS and LPCA.
But Root is always first and foremost about Root. He’s a poster boy textbook narcissist that may even dwarf Trump.
I’m very confident that AM did all the work to get Trump to the convention. And that WAR had nothing to do with it.
The death of the LP wasn’t a foregone conclusion after the invasion of the MC, but the real libertarians deciding to do fusionism with the MC is the suicide of the party.
No one who was distressed or bothered by LP delegates booing Trump, would have not voted for Trump in the first place.
Not surprised. When Wayne was in the LP I was optimistic but not sure he was a Libertarian. I had several conversations with him and got along with him, but he is an extreme extrovert and not very good at listening. It made it hard to get him to understand. I think he is a lot like Trump in that he is impulsive. Perhaps he did come up with the idea to get Trump’s team to ask for a speaking spot at our convention, but I think it was a bad idea for Trump. I don’t think it helped them.
I’ve been asked if WAR’s comment is the result of Gilsonian 5D chess to undermine Putin, re-position Trump and LBGT+, and so create a libertarianist Siberia as part of the US.
i cannot possibly comment to confirm or deny this. Check back in 50 nyears.
Chase & Mike earned their nominations the old fashioned way: scheming and backstabbing.
Delegates in DC rewarded statism and totalitarianism by nominating Chase and Mike. They deserve each other.
Kakistocracy still prevails at the LP’s national conventions.
The Mises Caucus “took over” the National Libertarian Party in Reno in 2022. Their “guy” for president lost the nomination to the two candidates that campaigned the longest and in Chase Oliver’s case campaigned for the nomination in all 50 states.
Chase & Mike earned their nominations the old fashioned way: hard work!
After two years under the MC control, membership is down, fund raising is down, LP News ceased publication, there’s a “For Rent” sign on the LP’s HQ in Alexanderia, VA, after 2 presidential elections (2020 and 2016) there will be no 50 state ballot status, and for frosting on the cake: fewer libertarians are holding elective office.
Delegates in DC rewarded success and merit by nominating Chase and Mike. They earned it.
Just like delegates did in 2010 when they chose me over W.A.R. as LNC Chair. The candidate for Chair (me) that spent the least amount of money campaigning for Chair, beat the candidate (W.A.R.) that spent the most.
The MC also lost two key officer positions: Vice Chair & Treasurer; to two “old guard” lifetime members.
Meritocracy still prevails at the LP’s national conventions.
Look at him there among the creepy LINO posers and pederasts. Snug like a bug in a rug. Or a hotdog between two firm buns. Or a Trump at a Republican Log Cabin. Absolutely disgusting!
I wonder if Angela has anything to say about WAR taking credit for her biggest accomplishment.
Root’s Teeth Are Awesome wrote at JUNE 7, 2024:
“Root was anti-gay marriage in 2007. Then when he saw which way the LP wind was blowing, he participated in a pride parade (I forget which one) and bragged about his strong support for gay marriage and gay rights.”
Indeed. He remains the barometer of (his perception of) the majority opinion in politics (or more accurately – the majority of the publicity/short-term cash in politics).
California Freedom text by: Thomas M. Sipos, editor, California Freedom (2007-09); photo by: Rob Power
Yes, it is unlikely that Wayne Root put this together. But there is a bigger issue with his post – his comment about Goldwater-Reagan conservatives backing Donald Trump. Goldwater-Reagan conservatives are among the many leaving the Republican Party because of Trump. Some of them voted for Gary Johnson in 2016, and others left earlier when President George W Bush was promoting big government “conservatism.”
Barry Goldwater himself saw the direction the Republican Party was headed when the evangelicals became a big force in the party. He stated at one point that history will know people like him as “liberals.”
WAR is merely a huckster trying to be the star of the show.
That was his M.O. during his time in the LP.
Literally so in the case of his 2010 race to be the party chair. He had a camera crew following him around in hopes of launching a reality TV series around him becoming and being chairman of the Libertarian Party.
His attempted comeback as a villain is ridiculous. Almost pathetic, as I doubt he really had much of a role in this. He’s deep in the background compared to the current-day LP combatants and Trump himself.
Before this I was attempting to write an article criticizing LP affiliates keeping Chase Oliver off the ballot, via the structure of “I owe Wayne Root an apology,” as he at least had the decency to quit the LP rather than sabotage it from within.
Now. Never mind.
While I think the author is right about the general election result of the LP’s convention pick, as a delegate at the convention I reject that the right-leaning Libertarian delegates at the convention picked the left-leaning candidate to help Trump win. I am such a right-leaning delegate that voted at the convention, and was surrounded by several others at the time. I believe the bigger cause of Chase’s victory was the bizarre behavior of the Mises-slate’s POTUS pick, Michael Rectenwald at the convention. The official story is that Michael took an unexpectedly strong cannabis gummy right before the most important appearance of his campaign. Most of those right-leaning delegates around me couldn’t vote for either 1) someone who experiments with drugs right before important appearances, or 2) someone who can’t keep their shit together and be articulate and persuasive under pressure. So those votes went to other weaker candidates, leading eventually to Mike Ter Matt, and then to either Chase or NOTA. If Michael’s problems was a ruse, or sabotage, then the LP implosion could have been masterminded; otherwise, it was an unfortunate consequence of foolishness or bad luck.
When Trump, in his speech, tried to convince LP delegates that he had Libertarian advisors, he couldn’t manage to name anyone who any delegate recognized – and the one person whose name was eventually figured out (Trump got it wrong, causing some searching to figure out who he meant) isn’t anyone who anyone in the party would consider a “libertarian” of either the big or smal l type.
I’m sure that if or when Trump loses, and Libertarians get blamed, WAR will disavow that he had anything to do with the speech.
BTW, I don’t believe that Root “masterminded” anything. He didn’t invite Trump to the convention. I doubt it was his “idea,” his “brainstorm.”
Maybe, after the invite, he emailed Trump, advising him to attend. Maybe. Not that Trump necessarily saw Root’s email.
I believe Root exaggerates to the point of lying. I can’t prove it. But that’s what I believe.
As Mr. Root claims, “No one knows the Libertarian Party better than me.”
He spent a few years in the LP, held a party office, ran in one election. Lots of people spent decades in the LP, held more party offices, and ran in more elections. So lots of people know the LP better than Root.
Root: To spite Trump, the next day, they named a woke, ultra-left, gay presidential nominee.
Root was anti-gay marriage in 2007. Then when he saw which way the LP wind was blowing, he participated in a pride parade (I forget which one) and bragged about his strong support for gay marriage and gay rights.
No, he’s again using the term “gay” as a pejorative.
As always, Root is foremost an opportunist, trying to hitch his bandwagon to whichever person or movement seems most profitable for him at the moment.
Goldwater would be considered “woke” today.
He sounds like a person trying to get himself a job.
He seems to think himself very clever, but the LP wouldn’t have “stolen” Republican votes from Trump regardless. None of the LP candidates would have convinced anyone who was gonna vote for Trump to vote for them instead, and conversely, no libertarian was going to vote for Trump regardless of which candidate the LP nominated. If the “game plan” was to make the LP implode, that may well have been accomplished, but the reasons he gives for wanting that to happen, make no sense. Also, his voice is almost as painful to listen to as RFK’s – someone please get this man a lozenge.