It has been reported that Donald Trump has accepted an invitation to speak at the Libertarian Party’s national convention in Washington D.C.  Trump will speak on Saturday, May 25, 2024.

This has been met with some questioning inside the Libertarian Party and with some libertarians in general.  Some of it is not so much questioning the idea but downright hostility to the idea.

It is not surprising there is resistance.  There are many principled people inside the Libertarian Party.  Many of those principles vary, but some think you shouldn’t play ball with the establishment at all (even though the Libertarian Party is a political party).

Most libertarians will agree that Trump is quite non libertarian in many ways.  But then opinions widely differ on just how bad Trump is and how much he is part of the establishment.

It should be pointed out that supposedly an invitation was extended to Joe Biden to address the convention as well.  It isn’t clear if Robert Kennedy Jr. was extended the same invitation and if he has any plans on attending.  At one point, Kennedy seemed interested in seeking the Libertarian Party nomination – probably for ballot access – but his message hasn’t been all that libertarian since that time.

Of course, they knew that Biden wouldn’t accept.  This is exactly why some libertarians are at least sympathetic to Trump.  His views are all over the place, but at least they differ at times from the official establishment narrative.  What other major presidential candidate of the last 30 years would be willing to address the Libertarian Party in this way?

It is not clear how the format will work and if any questions will be involved.  However, party members will share a list of their top ten issues with Trump in advance.  It will make it interesting to see if Trump sings a different tune on some things.

What is the Goal of the LP?

It is important to ask what the primary goal of the Libertarian Party is, or what it should be?  Your view of inviting Trump may be different depending on this answer.

Some people say that the goal of the Libertarian Party (LP) should be to elect Libertarians into office.  This, by itself, seems like a silly goal because it doesn’t say anything about who is getting elected to office.  The LP could get someone campaigning in favor of Marxism in office, but what kind of victory would that be?

Even if you were electing Libertarians who generally advocate liberty into office, what good would that do if they were ineffective while in office?  And that’s not to say ineffective in passing legislation but just in gaining anything positive for liberty in the long run.

If you are electing Libertarians into office while we don’t gain liberty now or in the long run, then that is no good.  Maybe it’s because the Libertarians are terrible at selling their message outside of their districts.  Or maybe it is because they give up on their principles once in office.  No matter what, electing Libertarians to office only matters if it is a net benefit to liberty.

I believe the real goal of the Libertarian Party should be to advance liberty in our society.  One avenue to do this may be to elect more libertarians into office.  That could be with the Libertarian Party banner or under some other banner.

The more probable strategy for success is educating others on the morality and benefits of liberty and using public opinion to get politicians to do the right thing.

We all know that the eventual nominee for president for the LP is not going to win the general election in 2024.  So, what is the point of running a candidate?  The biggest point I see is that the presidential candidate gets attention and is able to bring awareness to the party and the ideas of liberty.

The biggest success of spreading libertarian ideas from a presidential candidate was from Ron Paul in 2007/ 2008 and again in 2011/ 2012.  This is when he ran as a Republican.  But there have been presidential candidates on the LP ticket who have influenced voters to look at libertarian ideas.

What’s the Harm in Trump Speaking?

I see little downside for Trump to speak at the convention.  There is always a potential downside.  Most gains are made with some risk.

It is certainly possible that Trump gets on the stage and starts saying things that the audience doesn’t like.  It is also likely that there will be some kind of crowd reaction such as booing or head shaking.

It isn’t impossible to imagine Trump saying, “You people are really hard to please.  What do you guys get each election, like 1% or something, if you’re lucky?  I’m sure the smart ones out there will figure out that we need to defeat Biden and follow me.  I don’t care about the rest of you losers.  In fact, I am going to not pardon Julian Assange, and I’m going to increase the power of the Fed as soon as I get back into office.  That’s what you get for booing me.”

Ok.  So that probably won’t happen.  But you could maybe see a lighter variation of something like this taking place.  Trump is going to do what Trump is going to do.  What does the LP have to lose?  We’ll get another welfare/ warfare statist in the White House who doesn’t listen to libertarians?

I don’t believe the party should do wild and crazy things just to get attention and become relevant.  But a former president and the current frontrunner in the coming election is willing to speak at the Libertarian National Convention and possibly listen to libertarian concerns.  Why would you not have him?

Possible Good

This isn’t just a question of giving the Libertarian Party some relevance.  This is an actual opportunity to move Trump in a slightly more libertarian direction, even if it is just being 1% better.

You have to believe that something will come up about pardoning people who have not committed any crimes with victims other than the state.  Trump should be challenged on Assange and Snowden.  He should be challenged on Ross Ulbricht.  He probably doesn’t even know who Ross Ulbricht is.

Trump should know that there is a constituency that doesn’t want a welfare state and also doesn’t want any war with other countries.  He should know that some people don’t believe the U.S. government should be funding Israel, Ukraine or anybody else at all.  Maybe he will learn that it is possible to actually defund or reduce the budgets of some of the agencies that have actively opposed him since 2015.

If the only thing that comes out of Trump’s attendance at the convention is that he pardons Ulbricht or Assange, then that is one major step that libertarian pressure achieved.  It’s always possible that this small constituency influences Trump enough to end the U.S. proxy war in Ukraine or prevent a future war.

I’m not saying that it will happen, but that the upside seems to be far greater than the downside.  When it comes to U.S. politics, things are terrible the way they stand now.

Maybe nothing much will come of Trump’s appearance.  But if libertarians get an opportunity to be heard from the leading presidential candidate, why not take the opportunity?

It isn’t selling out your principles by being heard.  Nobody is asking any Libertarians to support or vote for Trump.  They don’t have to attend his speech if they don’t want to.  It is just a chance to influence someone who is heard by tens of millions of people and may again be in a position of political power.

It would be really interesting if Trump told the audience that if you live in a swing state to consider voting for him to get Biden out.  Again, Libertarian Party members, along with libertarians in general, could choose whether or not to listen to Trump on this.

I’m not sure Trump is wise enough to employ this strategy.  He wants everybody to vote for him.  I hope he realizes that the LP will be nominating their own candidate on that very same weekend that he will be speaking there.

Anyway, it is just another interesting political story in 2024 in the buildup to November.  We are only in May, and it hasn’t been boring so far.