Donald Trump speaking at the Libertarian Party National Convention on May 25, 2024 in Washington, DC.
Former president Donald Trump tried to cozy up with the Libertarian Party on Saturday, but it didn’t go well. As boos and chants of “End the Fed” filled the convention during his speech, there were two campaign promises that brought cheers from the crowd: commuting the sentence of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht and protecting crypto.
“He’s already served 11 years, we are going to get him home,” Trump told the crowd.
Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison in 2015 after he was revealed to be the person running the notorious online marketplace, Silk Road. His pardoning has become a cause for Libertarians who view his life sentence as an outlandish punishment for what some claim to be just a guy who helped others sell drugs like Adderall online.
“It’s one of the things we wanted from his first term,” Katherine Yeniscavich, a national committee member of the party, told Politico. “He wants Libertarian voters, and if he agreed to free Ross he would get a lot of votes.”
Of course, these people ignore the evidence that Ulbricht commissioned multiple hits against his enemies. Prosecutors said no one was ever killed but the allegations eventually played a role in his sentencing.
Trump also tried to win favor with Libertarians by focusing on cryptocurrency, in general.
“I will also stop Joe Biden’s crusade to crush crypto,” Trump told the crowd. “We’re going to stop it. I am going to ensure that the future of crypto and the future of Bitcoin will be made in the USA and not driven overseas.”
Trump’s campaign said last week it would begin accepting crypto donations. While he might not be a crypto bro, there are multiple crypto coins that reference “MAGA” and “Trump,” and his campaign has sold NFTs. A wallet reportedly linked to Trump has a value of more than $10 million, according to a report from The Block.
