Former US president Donald Trump was booed repeatedly while addressing the Libertarian Party National Convention on Saturday night, with many in the crowd shouting insults and decrying him for things such as his COVID-19 policies, running up towering federal deficits and lying about his political record.
When he took the stage, many jeered while some supporters clad in “Make America Great” hats and T-shirts cheered and chanted “USA.”
It was a rare moment of Trump coming face-to-face with open detractors, which is highly unusual for someone accustomed to staging rallies in front of ever-adoring crowds.
Photo: Reuters
Libertarians, who prioritize small government and individual freedoms, are often skeptical of Trump, and his invitation to address the convention has divided the party.
Trump tried to make light of that by referring to the four criminal indictments against him.
“If I wasn’t a Libertarian before, I sure as hell am a Libertarian now,” he joked.
Trump tried to praise “fierce champions of freedom in this room” and called US President Joe Biden a “tyrant” and the “worst president in the history of the United States,” prompting some in the audience to scream back: “That’s you.”
As the insults continued, Trump eventually hit back.
“You don’t want to win,” he said, adding that some Libertarians want to “keep getting your 3 percent every four years.”
Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson won about 3 percent of the national vote in 2016.
Libertarians were to pick their White House nominee during their convention, which wrapped up on yesterday.
Trump’s appearance also gave him a chance to court voters who might otherwise support independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr who gave his own Libertarian convention speech on Friday.
Polls have shown for months that most voters do not want a 2020 rematch between Trump and Biden. That dynamic could potentially boost support for an alternative such as the Libertarian nominee or Kennedy, whose candidacy has allies of Biden and Trump concerned that he could be a spoiler.
Despite the raucous atmosphere, Trump continued to press on with his speech, saying he had come “to extend a hand of friendship” in common opposition to Biden.
That prompted a chant of “We want Trump” from supporters, but more cries of “End the Fed” — a common refrain from Libertarians who oppose the US Federal Reserve.
One person who held up a sign reading “No wannabe dictators” was dragged away by security.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
JOINT EFFORTS: The three countries have been strengthening an alliance and pressing efforts to bolster deterrence against Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea The US, Japan and the Philippines on Friday staged joint naval drills to boost crisis readiness off a disputed South China Sea shoal as a Chinese military ship kept watch from a distance. The Chinese frigate attempted to get closer to the waters, where the warships and aircraft from the three allied countries were undertaking maneuvers off the Scarborough Shoal — also known as Huangyan Island (黃岩島) and claimed by Taiwan and China — in an unsettling moment but it was warned by a Philippine frigate by radio and kept away. “There was a time when they attempted to maneuver