Donald Trump asked members of the Libertarian Party for their votes Saturday night at their convention — and was repeatedly heckled and booed in return. Trump attempted to deflect the overwhelmingly negative response when he told the audience in response, “That’s nice,” then added, “Maybe you don’t want to win … keep getting your 3% every four years.”
Right Side Broadcasting, a conservative media company that covered the convention, even prepped its viewers ahead of time for what they were about to see. An anchor for the broadcast explained ahead of the speech, “Just to let you know that this crowd is very vocal about their beliefs and the policies that they stand for. And so with that being said, President Trump is expected to come on this stage and he will be met with all kinds of different personalities in the crowd.”
“Now, not your usual MAGA supporters and MAGA enthusiasts who come to his rallies,” the broadcaster added.
She was certainly correct — after he arrived 30 minutes late, Trump was introduced to the crowd amid mixed cheers and boos that turned overwhelmingly into only boos within seconds.
It was clear that Trump had second thoughts about delivering his speech as soon as he took he the stage. He told the crowd that a lot of people asked “why I came to speak at this Libertarian Convention — and you know, it’s an interesting question.” He joked that the 91 federal indictments he’s received in the last year have made him a Libertarian now, but was again met with a mixed reaction.
Trump told the audience, “Everyone here tonight believes that we must fight for the same fundamental freedoms, freedom of expression, freedom of religion, freedom of the right to own a firearm and freedom over taxation.”
When his statement was met with more boos, Trump commented “that was interesting” and added, “Then you’re going to like me — firearm, you’re going to like me.”
“We must work together,” Trump said. “Combine with us, you have to combine with us,” he said as the audience yelled, “Nooo!”
“We cannot give crooked Joe Biden four more years,” he added as boos rang throughout the venue.
Semafor’s David Weigel described “most” of the attendees as “unhappy with the Trump appearance.”
“Saturday’s speech might not have moved many Libertarian voters; the party will pick its nominee tomorrow, and no delegates I met planned to abandon them for Trump,” Weigel added. “He got plenty of applause for promising to defend cryptocurrency, but even that sounded more like a reach for some Kennedy voters and anti-establishment independents who were disappointed in Trump’s first term.”
If there was one big moment for members of the party, it was when Trump said he would pardon Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the Silk Road dark web marketplace. “On day one, we will commute the sentence,” he told the crowd before adding, “We will bring him home.”
Ulbricht has been in prison since 2013 for creating the website that allowed people to anonymously buy and sell drugs (among other things). Trump was specifically asked to address his case at the event. Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison in 2015. But libertarians have been supportive of Ulbricht due to the laissez-faire approach and liberal social attitudes that bring them together.
The controversial figure created the Silk Road in 2011. When it was shut down in October 2013, the site was the “most sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace on the Internet” and Ulbricht “deliberately operated Silk Road as an online criminal marketplace intended to enable its users to buy and sell drugs and other illegal goods and services anonymously and outside the reach of law enforcement.”
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