Washington, June 3 (EFE).- Driven by the need to consolidate his leadership in the polls, the former president of the United States and Republican candidate Donald Trump has gone on the hunt for a very particular group of voters: those of the Libertarian Party.
Trump, who is not at all accustomed to giving speeches before an audience that does not profess absolute admiration for him, made a very unusual gesture on May 25 by participating in the national convention of the Libertarian Party held in a central hotel in Washington.
With his usual haughty tone, the Republican offered to be his candidate for the White House, something that the libertarian militants rejected with boos, who ended up nominating activist Chase Oliver.
“If you want to lose, don’t vote for me. “Continue receiving 3% of the vote every four years,” Trump challenged them.
The anecdote demonstrates the New York magnate’s willingness to attract to his ranks supporters of libertarianism, who defend reducing the State and giving free rein to the market, an ideology that the Argentine president, Javier Milei, has put on the map and that may have a determining role in the US elections in November.
“It may be that Trump is interested in gaining libertarian support because libertarianism, apparently, is in fashion, especially after Milei’s victory in Argentina,” Daniel Raisbeck, an analyst at the Cato Institute think tank in Washington, tells EFE. .
Trump leads the polls slightly ahead of Democratic President Joe Biden, so minor parties, such as the Libertarian and Green, and independent candidates, such as that of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., could cause irreparable damage to some of them. the leading candidates.
Few but desired votes
With Gary Johnson at the helm, the Libertarian Party achieved historic results of 4.5 million votes (3.3% of the total) in the 2016 presidential elections, in which Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Some voices then blamed libertarians for the unexpected defeat of Clinton, who seemed to have everything in her favor to become the first woman president.
Four years later, in 2020, Jo Jorgensen’s Libertarian candidacy plummeted to 1.7 million votes (1.2%) and Biden was able to defeat Trump.
Political scientist Cal Jillson, professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas (Texas), explains to EFE that “in a very close election it could make a real difference if libertarians took some votes away from Trump.”
Although the Libertarian Party has historically had a residual role, this formation can garner more votes in some decisive states than the difference between Democrats and Republicans.
This is what happened, for example, in 2020 in Georgia, where the Libertarian candidacy obtained 62,200 votes, a bag of votes large enough to tip the balance given that Biden took only 11,800 votes from Trump in that state.
Trumpism and the free market
Given the Republican’s attempts to capture these voters, Jillson believes that “it is possible that some libertarians will vote for Trump thinking that their own candidate cannot win, but many will stay with the candidate of their own party.”
One of the great obstacles is, as Raisbeck emphasizes, that Trumpism, characterized by strong protectionism, is “not very compatible with liberal-libertarian philosophy.”
“If one defends markets free of state interference and limited government, the logical thing would be to oppose protectionist measures such as the tariffs that Trump imposed during his presidency, or the growth of public spending and debt,” argues the Institute analyst. Cato.
The Southern Methodist University professor adds that Trump has demonstrated “authoritarian tendencies” and that is an “anathema” for libertarians.
Curiously, Milei, who defines himself as the first libertarian president in the world and usually defends that ideology on trips he makes outside of Argentina, has confessed a great fascination for Trump, with whom he even had a brief meeting last February in Washington.
But Raisbeck insists: Milei and Trump only agree on their “controversial style” and their “opposition to the left”, given that the Argentine president promotes “a libertarian and free trade agenda” and the Republican candidate is “protectionist and interventionist.”
Keep reading:
- “He’s a great guy”: euphoric meeting of Donald Trump and Javier Milei at a conservative conference
- Trump declared his love for Milei: “I love him because he loves me”
- Trump claims to be a “proud political dissident”; he meets with the cream of the far right