Videos showing former President Donald Trump being met with loud boos during the Libertarian National Convention on Saturday night has gone viral on social media.
Trump and President Joe Biden became the presumptive 2024 Republican and Democratic presidential nominees respectively in March as both continue to campaign ahead of November's election. On Saturday, Trump spoke to the convention in Washington, D.C., ahead of them making their presidential nominee pick on Sunday.
Trump was the first former president to address the event, which had around 1,000 attendees, in its 50-year history. However, while he spoke to the crowd he was met with boos at several points videos on X, formerly Twitter, show.
"A seething and unpopular Trump lashes out and belittles the audience as they boo him," Biden-Harris HQ wrote on X, while posting a video that has garnered 1 million views as of Sunday morning.
A seething and unpopular Trump lashes out and belittles the audience as they boo him pic.twitter.com/K0M6fP3SVj — Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) May 26, 2024
In the video, Trump can be seen responding to the crowd by mocking Libertarians for their electoral record. "But only do that if you want to win. If you want to lose, don't do that. Maybe you don't want to win. Keep getting your 3 to 4 percent [in the general election] every year," the former president said.
The Libertarian Party, which was formed in 1971 and supports capitalism free from government supervision and civil liberties, is the third-largest American political party by voter registration, but does not have a great deal of influence in American politics. It typically garners around 3 percent of the national vote and has few elected officials.
In another X post, Acyn, a senior digital editor for MeidasTouch, shared a video, which has garnered over 370,000 views as of Sunday morning that showed Trump being met with boos as he urged Libertarians to vote for him as he took aim at Biden.
"Trump began his speech with boos and Trump ends his speech with boos. Consistent," Acyn wrote on X.
Trump began his speech with boos and Trump ends his speech with boos
Consistent pic.twitter.com/Yco7c6y3Uy — Acyn (@Acyn) May 26, 2024
"And again you can either nominate us or put us in the position or give us your vote. I would say nominate or give us your vote, but we want Libertarian votes because you stand for what we stand for and don't waste a vote. And don't allow the worst president in the history of our country to come back and do the final destruction of America," Trump said while being booed.
Trump was not the only one to be met with boos from the crowd as Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee was also booed when he spoke out in support of Trump.
Ron Filipkowski, editor-in chief of MeidasTouch, shared a video, which has over 700,000 views as of Sunday morning of Lee being booed as he encouraged the crowd to vote for Trump.
"I encourage you, take a listen to Donald Trump, support Donald Trump, restore the Constitution," the senator said.
Newsweek has reached out to Trump's campaign via email for comment.
Mike Lee encourages the crowd to vote for Trump at the Libertarian convention and gets booed off stage pic.twitter.com/P5jX5EZH4J — Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) May 26, 2024
However, some people showed their support for the Republican and chanted "We want Trump" during his speech, but was soon drowned out by the crowd's loud boos.
In another X post, Acyn shared a video, which garnered over 700,000 views as of Sunday morning, of the moment Trump supporters attempted to drum up support.
"Trump supporters attempt to chant Trump and are quickly drowned out by boos," Acyn wrote.
Trump supporters attempt to chant Trump and are quickly drowned out by boos pic.twitter.com/Ok4rwUaRJj — Acyn (@Acyn) May 25, 2024
The crowd at the Libertarian convention did cheer when Trump promised to commute the sentence of deep web market mastermind, Ross Ulbricht, who is currently serving a life sentence for the now-defunct illegal online marketplace, "Silk Road."
In an emailed statement to Newsweek on Saturday night, Jason Miller, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, said they "absolutely" knew "that it's not exactly home base" for the Republican frontrunner.
"There will be people who want him to be there, and people who don't want him to be there, but we're on offense and competing for nontraditional votes in order to unite the country," Miller said. "President Trump is going to get credit for showing up and making clear he wants to earn votes from members of the Libertarian Party and people who view themselves as being more libertarian minded."
Former President Donald Trump addresses the Libertarian Party National Convention at the Washington Hilton on Saturday in Washington, D.C. Videos showing Trump being met with loud boos during the convention on Saturday night has gone... Former President Donald Trump addresses the Libertarian Party National Convention at the Washington Hilton on Saturday in Washington, D.C. Videos showing Trump being met with loud boos during the convention on Saturday night has gone viral on social media. More Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
restore_democracy on May 27th, 2024 at 12:42 UTC »
I’d love to see Trump among actual people more often instead of just surrounded by his sycophants. He’d be booed constantly wherever he went.
ceiffhikare on May 27th, 2024 at 12:31 UTC »
This is one headline that i wont mind seeing 5k reposts of and will upvote every damn one of them.
VRS50 on May 27th, 2024 at 12:07 UTC »
The most interesting part of this, was apparently he continued his speech for like 20 minutes after the famous scene “If you want to win, …..maybe you want to lose!….” Can you imagine, with that reception, continuing for 20 minutes?