Trump's speech at the Libertarian convention actually quite libertarian
The full speech is attached
(Give me liberty or give me death - Patrick Henry, and now Donald Trump at the 2024 LP convention)
I had been debating whether to write on the Libertarian convention or not. Given that it is Memorial Day weekend I have tried to actually spend some time doing summer things that normal, non-political newsletter people do. But I am going to touch on the convention.
It was the tale of two unforced errors (though generally Trump did well). One made by Trump and one made by the Libertarian Party.
I was pretty sure that Trump downshifting into mocking some of the Libertarians at their own convention was going to be the biggest mistake of the weekend. That is the clip that made the online rounds. But it wasn’t.
First on Trump.
He didn’t really know the crowd to which he was speaking. Case in point. He celebrated his endorsement by the NRA which many libertarians (and Libertarians) consider a sellout organization on gun rights. He should have known this. His people should have known this. But he and they didn’t.
What he said next was much better.
“We want government out of our business, out of our wallets, and out of our lives.”
That was good stuff for libertarians. (And we’d argue for people in general.)
But then in another case of misreading the room he makes the case that the LP “should combine with us. You have to combine with us.”
This is never going to go over well with a lot of LP partisans who give their blood sweat and tears to a party that has to fight to simply to survive. I know a few big L libertarians. I’ll bet they would have booed that coming from Trump. The LP wants to sustain its identity.
Then Trump went on.
“What you are witnessing under Biden is a toxic fusion of the Marxist left, the Deep State, the Military Industrial Complex, the government security and surveillance services, and their partners, all merging together into a hideous perversion of the American system.”
OK. That’s an interesting statement.
Then this.
“I am proud to be the first president in 70 years who started no new wars.”
You gotta admit. That’s pretty yuge.
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