Former president Donald Trump on Saturday night met a hostile audience at the Libertarian National Convention, where he was booed and heckled while trying to persuade voters to support him.
“Only if you wanna win,” Trump told the upset crowd, asking them to nominate him. “Maybe you don’t wanna win win. Maybe you don’t want to win. . . . If you want to lose, don’t do that. Keep getting your 3 percent every four years.”
JUST IN: Donald Trump makes fun of libertarians at the Libertarian Party Convention after they start booing him, says they can “keep getting your 3% every four years.”
Amazing.
“Win only if you wanna win. Maybe you don't wanna win win. Maybe you don't want to win.”
“Keep… pic.twitter.com/QRHKjZcaAE
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) May 26, 2024
Trump tried to strike a deal of sorts onstage in exchange for the movement’s support, offering to appoint a libertarian to his cabinet and to other senior posts if elected. His speech at points drew a mixed reaction of booing and cheering.
“In the last year, I’ve been indicted by the government on 91 different things, so if I wasn’t a libertarian before, I sure as hell am a libertarian now,” he said to a somewhat positive uproar.
The backfiring campaign stop comes after Trump’s massive rally in the South Bronx, which attracted many minority-member residents from the boroughs. Press interviewed first-time voters and lifelong Democrats who said they’d be voting for Trump in 2024. Trump has been stuck in the Manhattan area for the Stormy Daniels hush-money trial prosecuted by progressive district attorney Alvin Bragg. Trump has called the case an instance of political persecution designed to prevent him from campaigning and returning to the White House.
On Friday, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke at the Libertarian National Convention and criticized Trump for being “steamrolled by bureaucrats” over Covid-19-related restrictions.
Much more popular with the crowd, Kennedy said that Trump “had the right instinct when he came into office,” noting that he was “initially reluctant to impose lockdowns.” Under pressure from so-called health experts, however, Trump “gave keys to all of our business to a 50-year bureaucrat who had never been elected to anything and had no accountability,” Kennedy added.
He accused Trump of presiding over a period during which personal liberties and the Constitution were greatly eroded. Kennedy challenged Trump to debate him at the convention, but the former president, who has previously said that Kennedy is “not a serious candidate,” refused.
“Libertarians are some of the most independent and thoughtful thinkers in our Country. . . . We must all work together to help advance freedom and liberty for every American, and a second Trump Administration will achieve that goal. I look forward to speaking at the Libertarian Event, which will be attended by many of my great friends,” Trump said in a statement to ABC News ahead of his appearance.
Saturday marked the first time a former president has directly addressed the convention, the Libertarian Party said in a press release. The party is looking to confirm its presidential and vice-presidential nominees on Sunday.