Earlier this week, the Libertarian Party announced that former president Donald Trump will be speaking at the 2024 Libertarian National Convention.
Since then, many of our LPTexas members and donors have expressed concern—and no small amount of outrage—at the prospect of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee being given a platform at our national convention. And it’s no mystery why they feel that way.
During his presidency, Trump repeatedly demonstrated that he does not share our libertarian values. Here are some of his greatest hits:
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Added $8.4 trillion to our national debt while in office for one term,
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Disavowed the Second Amendment, saying, “Take the guns first, go through due process second,”
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Stated that the death sentence would be appropriate for NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden,
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Failed to bring an end to the conflict in Afghanistan, and last but in no way least...
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Spearheaded Operation Warp Speed, leading to ill-tested vaccines and the lockdown regime.
The notion that the Libertarian Party stands to gain anything net-positive in the way of national media coverage or attention from this engagement is naive at best. In the sphere of American politics, the adage “there’s no such thing as bad publicity” does not apply. With more than 60% of American voters agreeing a major third party is needed, we—the third-largest political party in the country—should be promoting Libertarian policies and principles with positive energy, not contriving publicity stunts that depend on the full cooperation of our opponents and corporate media for success.
The Libertarian Party of Texas strongly opposes the invitation of Trump, or any other opposing political candidate, to our National Convention.
Trump has already flatly denied our national Chair’s requests for a debate or even for live questions from a moderator, insisting on a simple personal address to our delegates. He has also clearly described his motive for wanting to attend our convention and deliver such an address: having a chance to pitch our delegates on voting for him instead of our own candidate. And the national leadership has agreed to this on the theory that somehow we’ll be able to turn this situation to our advantage.
This is a gamble we are not likely to win and are instead much more likely to regret in hindsight if we continue in this direction. The Libertarian Party of Texas respectfully requests that the Convention Oversight Committee and Libertarian National Committee promptly rescind the national Chair’s invitation to Donald Trump.
Andrew Amelang, Chair
The Libertarian Party of Texas