Check out the United States Libertarian Party’s website for its national convention later this month at which a major focus will be the choosing of the party’s presidential nominee. You see something very peculiar. Up top at the home page is a picture of a portion of presumptive Republican Party presidential nominee Donald Trump’s face. Underneath that is text reading “President Trump to Address Convention.”
Trump is a guy who the Libertarian Pary at previous national conventions in 2016 and 2020 nominated presidential candidates to run against. This year several candidates are again running for the Libertarian presidential nomination with a victor to be decided at the very convention that has Trump’s speech heralded up top of its website. The convention, indeed, is what is commonly referred to as a presidential nominating convention.
Clicking on the home page promotion of Trump’s speech, one reaches a page dedicated to Trump’s arranged time in the convention spotlight. There one encounters the kind of enthusiastic announcement one would expect the party to offer for its own candidate. But, strangely, the announcement regards a person delegates at the convention will be nominating someone to compete against in the upcoming election. This is how the Trump speech is promoted on the page:
Join us for a historic moment at the 2024 Libertarian National Convention as we welcome former President Donald J. Trump to the podium. This momentous occasion will mark the first time a former President directly addresses our members, candidates, and executive committee. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear insights from a prominent figure in American politics and watch him engage with Libertarian ideals.
Wow. Did Trump’s campaign write that gushing description?
Though bizarre, this promotion of a Trump speech at the upcoming Libertarian Party convention is in line with other actions I wrote about in September that indicate the leadership that took control of the party two years ago at its last national convention is primarily focused on doing things other than advancing the party’s candidates and campaigns. Indeed, in this case the party leadership appears to be taking things a step further into absurdity — using the party’s presidential nominating convention to promote another party’s presidential nominee.
