Donald J. Trump likes to dwell on his successes as president, often without mentioning his role in events or policies that alienated some of his supporters. And many Republicans who were once infuriated by his role in, say, COVID-19 lockdowns or the growing national debt have fallen victim to a kind of Trump amnesia in the hopes of ousting President Biden from the White House.
But many libertarians haven’t forgotten, and they plan to remind Trump of it when he speaks at the party’s convention in Washington on Saturday night.
Libertarian Party conventions, as befits a group that espouses individualism, are often tumultuous, with infighting rife as members assert their positions.
But the Libertarian Party’s decision to invite Trump to speak at an event where it will choose its presidential candidate has sparked outrage among some party members, who say it undermines the party’s integrity and gives a platform to a candidate who is in many ways completely at odds with their own beliefs.
As a result, Trump, who has conducted much of his campaigning this year in friendly territory, may find himself facing a hostile mob of Libertarian Party supporters on Saturday, many of whom have said they intend to heckle him or protest his presence.
“We expected there would be a significant number of members who were unhappy with Donald Trump,” said Libertarian Party spokesman Brian McWilliams. He acknowledged that some of Trump’s policies are fundamentally at odds with the party platform, but said the party “would voice its dissatisfaction with those policies.”
“We expect civility,” McWilliams said, “but I don’t expect it to be quiet.”
McWilliams said a potential saving grace for Trump is that tickets to his events will be available to the public, with red MAGA hats already starting to line the venues by Saturday afternoon.
Central to the Libertarian Party platform is a belief in limited government power and unrestricted individual freedom. Libertarians tend to lean to the right on fiscal issues, opposing taxes, extensive regulatory agencies, and government spending on defense. But they also tend to be more liberal on social issues, such as legalizing drugs and sex work, abolishing the death penalty, and limiting government interference in health and private life.
Some libertarians have found common cause with Trump, a former president who frequently denounced government bureaucracy and regulations, but his support for tariffs, pledges to crack down on immigration and the massive increase in the national debt under his administration are at odds with many in the party.
That includes lingering anger over the handling of the coronavirus pandemic, with party staunch supporters pointing out that the toughest lockdowns and mask mandates were imposed during Trump’s term in office.
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in a party speech on Friday afternoon, criticized Trump over his response to the pandemic.
“President Trump has presided over the greatest restriction on individual liberty this country has ever seen,” Kennedy said to applause.
Recent polls suggest Kennedy could snatch support from both Trump and Biden in the general election. His positions run the ideological spectrum and he agrees with Trump and the Libertarian Party on some points, but he pushed an anti-establishment message in his speech and spent more time attacking Trump than Biden.
During Friday’s vote on party discipline, one attendee yelled an expletive-filled “I would like to suggest we go tell Donald Trump to get out,” as some in the crowd cheered in response and erupted in vulgar chants that included Trump’s name.
Speaking at the convention on Friday afternoon, Vivek Ramaswami, an entrepreneur, former Republican presidential candidate and now an outspoken Trump supporter, was booed at least twice when he mentioned Trump.
Trump campaign advisers say Trump’s speech on Saturday is likely to highlight the overlap between his policies and those of the Libertarian Party. They see it as a chance to garner support from voters who see him as more likely to unseat Biden than a third-party candidate.
Asked about the negative reaction to Trump at the convention, Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller said in a statement that Trump’s “America First policies are what many libertarian voters care about and he is the only candidate who can defeat Joe Biden and put an end to Biden’s attacks on our Constitution, our freedoms and our God-given rights.”
Democrats and Republicans alike have frequently argued that third-party candidates hurt their chances of winning in the past two presidential elections. Libertarian Party candidate Jo Jorgensen won 1.2% of the national vote in 2020, and more than 50,000 votes in Arizona, where Trump lost to Biden by just over 10,000 votes.
Some Libertarian Party leaders and representatives bristled at the idea that Trump might garner their votes, and they criticized this weekend’s invitation as a ploy to gain press attention and to undermine the integrity of the event and the party.
“We’re emerging as a prize to be won rather than an entity that stands on its own,” Tennessee Representative Richard Longstreth said.
And then there was the sticker mystery.
The campaign of one of the party’s presidential candidates, Lars Mapsted, says it spent $20,000 on advertising around the lobby of the Washington Hilton, where the convention is being held, including a large floor sticker that reads, “Deny Trump and Biden the Victory on Election Night.”
Mapstead has been a vocal critic of Trump, particularly his role in increasing the national debt. “We reject everything about Trump,” he said in an interview with The New York Times on Friday.
Daniel Johnson, an aide to Mapstead, said a man approached him on Thursday, identified himself as a representative of the Libertarian Party and demanded that the ad be removed.
Johnson said he learned the man worked for Trump’s event coordinator and physically prevented him from removing the ads. Video from Friday showed hotel security removing the stickers from the floor.
The Trump campaign has denied any involvement in the incident. A person said to be a manager at the Washington Hilton said he was unaware that the ad had been removed.
Mapstead blamed the Trump campaign. “This system leads to election fraud,” he said. “The stronger candidates are able to suppress the weaker candidates.”
Trump has made a point this year to attend some events that aren’t traditionally part of a Republican presidential candidate’s schedule, including a rally this week in the heavily Democratic borough of the Bronx.
Trump also appeared at a shoe trade show in Philadelphia attended by attendees who tended to be younger and more diverse than those typically seen at his rallies, and the crowd appeared to be split between booing and cheering.
“This is a little different to the crowd I’m used to, but I love this crowd,” he said at the time.
