After an unfriendly welcome at the Libertarian National Convention this past weekend, former President Donald Trump predicted he would get the “majority of the libertarian votes” in November.
The 2024 presumptive Republican nominee took to Truth Social to call out independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a “radical left Democrat” in comments made after he ventured into what appeared to be enemy territory at the Washington, D.C. convention Saturday. Despite many libertarians aligning more with Republicans than Democrats, they did not welcome many of Trump’s overtures and his effort “to extend a hand of friendship.”
Trump responded at one point with a brutal reality check, telling the crowd “You don’t want to win” and “Keep getting your three percent every four years.”
In the end, the Libertarian Party rejected offers by Trump and Kennedy and chose, instead, to nominate former Georgia Senate candidate Chase Oliver who once described himself as “armed and gay.”
“We did it! I am officially the presidential nominee,” Oliver wrote on X Sunday. “It’s time to unify and move forward for liberty.”
“After over eight hours of voting, he narrowly defeated the hard-line Mises Caucus candidate by less than a single percent. In a final round where he only faced ‘none of the above,’ he was finally able to secure a majority of delegates and be named the nominee,” The Hill reported. “Oliver garnered about 60 percent of the vote in that final round, while the ‘none of the above’ line — a protest vote backed by Mises Caucus diehards — received about 36 percent of the delegate votes. A ‘none’ victory would have seen state Libertarian parties nominate their own candidates.”
Back in 2022, the now Libertarian nominee spoke of eliminating run-off elections as he stood in front of a rainbow Gadsden flag.
“If ‘not voted’ was actually on the ballot, they would win nearly every election in this country,” he said at the time.
“This guy narrowly avoided losing to ‘None of the Above,'” wrote filmmaker Eric Abbenante on X.
“Enjoy that 3%, suckers. Should have accepted the olive branch from Trump, instead,” he added. “Libertarians never miss an opportunity, to miss an opportunity.”
The Libertarian ticket will include vice presidential candidate Mike ter Maat. It is not clear how Kennedy’s continued campaign will impact the final margins come November as Libertarian candidates have historically garnered one to three percent of the general election votes.
Many feel the push for more candidates is simply “illogical.”
Exactly where is Chase Oliver going to fit in here? He will NEVER be elected, of course. Voting for this guy seems as wasteful a vote as voting for West or Stein. It all seems so illogical to me… I don’t get it. 🤷♀️ pic.twitter.com/4zreN9sme3
— Lean Right (@LeanRight6) May 27, 2024
Yesterday, I held up this sign calling Donald Trump supporters socialists.
Tonight, the Libertarian Party nominated a gay race communist for president.
With those choices, I’m standing with Donald Trump. https://t.co/016sd7Wb4i pic.twitter.com/gNA9lVSv8k
— Jeremy Kauffman 🦔 (@jeremykauffman) May 27, 2024
I was rude to this woman last night. I did it on purpose to get attention.
Later, she told me she wanted to strip the right to vote from anyone who’s not a net taxpayer (including government employees). Absolutely based.
If anyone knows her or can get this to her, I apologize. pic.twitter.com/pFb1E8kCuD
— Jeremy Kauffman 🦔 (@jeremykauffman) May 27, 2024
