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Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Florida Libertarians, meeting in Daytona Beach, sense opportunity in Musk-Trump breakup
DAYTONA BEACH − Fallout from the week's nuclear-bomb-level blowup between President Donald Trump and his billionaire buddy Elon Musk had yet to settle when a few dozen true believers in absolute freedom and small government gathered to map out plans for the 2026 election. The Libertarian Party of Florida held its annual convention at The Daytona Hotel June 6-7, and attendees were energized by the opportunities presented by the Trump-Musk spat and skepticism about Trump's spending plan, aka the "Big, Beautiful Bill," that's being hashed out in the Senate. Steven Nekhaila, national chair of the Libertarian Party, is from Key West and was in attendance at the Daytona convention. He described a Republican-Democratic "duopoly," two boots of the same creature that continue to kick the American public that keeps electing it. "We have a saying. There's nobody more Libertarian than a Republican who's running for office until they get in power," Nekhalia said in a June 7 interview. "And we've seen that with the GOP over and over again at the federal level." Following Musk's break with Trump, the world's richest man posted to X, his own social-media platform: "Is it time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle?" Smelling an opportunity, Nekhaila pounced, posting: "We've been building this party for the 80% who are tired of being ruled by liars, spenders and tyrants. The door is open. The Libertarian Party isn't new, but it's finally impossible to ignore." While Nekhalia worked at a national level, other Libertarians at the Daytona convention were eying positions at the local and state level. Two Libertarians elected at the local level in Seminole County led a candidate training session. Altamonte Springs City Commissioner Jim Turney and Winter Springs City Commissioner Paul Diaz talked about how in Florida, most local elected positions are non-partisan, which creates an opportunity for minor-party candidates to introduce themselves to their communities and build trust without running into the major-party machinery. Turney suggested that when presenting themselves, candidates be Libertarian, authentic and themselves. Diaz said he campaigned in 2024 on a message that much of what is being proposed by government is outside of its role. "Is that really the role of government? Is that really what we should be doing? My line during my campaign was, 'Government's role is not to entertain people.'" Diaz said. "Stick to what we're supposed to be doing, and in my case I go right back to my lane, which is fiscally sound policy, only doing what you're supposed to do, and why on Earth are you even proposing a budget that's going to increase ... a tax increase ... when you still have mismanagement in your books?" As a two-time candidate, Matt Johnson, the state chairman, learned that he had a better shot when he ran for the DeLand City Commission in 2022 than the Florida Legislature in 2024. Even though the City Commission was a nonpartisan race, Johnson said the first question out of most voters' mouths was whether he was a Republican or Democrat. "I was able to take just over 30% away from an incumbent in a heavily Republican district," Johnson said. In the 2024 Florida House District 29 race, incumbent state Rep. Webster Barnaby won 55.6% of the vote over Democrat Rosemarie Latham and Johnson, who managed just 2.8%. "Our messaging and our policies and our methodologies of governing (are) popular, but when it comes down to the machine that is the Republicans and the Democrats, we just don't have the money to compete, and so I would say start small, start local, win there, where your party is not allowed to be a part of the discussion, build a resume of success and fighting for their rights," Johnson said. The Libertarian Party, founded in 1971, has hung on as a minor party because of its core beliefs, Johnson said. "Our principles are more aligned with the founders than either of the two parties as they currently exist," he said. "What keeps me going is I believe if humanity, if Americans, DeLandites, Volusia County citizens are to fully live to their full potential, they have to be as free as possible without government intervention. I think it is purely principles that keeps us going." Libertarian Joe Hannoush, an Ormond Beach resident who has run for multiple offices over the past decade, said he has previously been a member of both the Republican and Democratic parties. "I left for the same reason. They don't do what they actually believe," Hannoush said. "They tell you they're for anti-war and they keep going to war. They tell you they're for fiscal responsibility. They keep raising the debt. Both sides. ... I think we have to have hope because the only other option is another revolution, you know, and I'm not ready for that, so I'm trying to do it the peaceful way, the voting way." Hannoush said he is "hopeful" the Libertarians will soon be on an "upward swing," but he also cautioned that the parties involved in the Trump-Musk clash of titans have self-interest at heart. Musk − owner of Tesla, the electric car manufacturer − has expressed dismay that a Joe Biden-era electric vehicle mandate will be eliminated, while Trump has also threatened to cut Musk's company off from other government contracts. "Libertarians want an equal playing field under government. Not having government pick winners and losers," Hannoush said. "Most people don't want to have that spending, which is what the Big, Beautiful Bill does. The Big Beautiful Debt is what it is." This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Libertarians stand for small government. Can any win in 2026 election?
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump suggests Canadians should elect him, making the country the 51st state
In a social media post on the day of Canada's election, President Donald Trump suggested that Canadians should vote for him in order for Canada to become the 51st state. "Elect the man who has the strength and wisdom to cut your taxes in half, increase your military power, for free, to the highest level in the World, have your Car, Steel, Aluminum, Lumber, Energy, and all other businesses, QUADRUPLE in size, with ZERO TARIFFS OR TAXES, if Canada becomes the cherished 51st. State of the United States of America," Trump said on Monday, seeming to refer to himself as the candidate. He added, "America can no longer subsidize Canada with the Hundreds of Billions of Dollars a year that we have been spending in the past. It makes no sense unless Canada is a State!" Despite Trump's suggestion, Canadians cannot vote for him since he is not on the ballot. There are 16 registered political parties in Canada -- with the Liberals and the Conservatives being the most dominant. Other parties include the Green Party, the Libertarian Party, the United Party and the Canadian Future Party. MORE: Trade wars, threats of annexation: How Trump is changing the course of Canada's election In response to the president's post, Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre issued a sharp reply, saying Trump should "stay out of our election." "The only people who will decide the future of Canada are Canadians at the ballot box. Canada will always be proud, sovereign, and independent, and we will NEVER be the 51st state," Poilievre wrote in a post on X. "Today, Canadians can vote for change so we can strengthen our country, stand on our own two feet, and stand up to America from a position of strength." Canadian Prime Minister and Liberal Party leader Mark Carney posted a video on X on Monday with the message: "This is Canada -- and we decide what happens here." Latest polls show the Liberals ahead of the Conservatives, when only a few months ago the Conservatives held a 25-point lead. Canada has a parliamentary system, meaning if the Liberals win a majority of seats in the election, or are able to form a minority government with members of another party, Carney will continue to serve as prime minister. Nearly all of the polls for the election are expected to close by 9:30 p.m. ET on Monday. Trump suggests Canadians should elect him, making the country the 51st state originally appeared on
28-04-2025
- Politics
Trump suggests Canadians should elect him, making the country the 51st state
In a social media post on the day of Canada's election, President Donald Trump suggested that Canadians should vote for him in order for Canada to become the 51st state. "Elect the man who has the strength and wisdom to cut your taxes in half, increase your military power, for free, to the highest level in the World, have your Car, Steel, Aluminum, Lumber, Energy, and all other businesses, QUADRUPLE in size, with ZERO TARIFFS OR TAXES, if Canada becomes the cherished 51st. State of the United States of America," Trump said on Monday, seeming to refer to himself as the candidate. He added, "America can no longer subsidize Canada with the Hundreds of Billions of Dollars a year that we have been spending in the past. It makes no sense unless Canada is a State!" Despite Trump's suggestion, Canadians cannot vote for him since he is not on the ballot. There are 16 registered political parties in Canada -- with the Liberals and the Conservatives being the most dominant. Other parties include the Green Party, the Libertarian Party, the United Party and the Canadian Future Party. In response to the president's post, Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre issued a sharp reply, saying Trump should "stay out of our election." "The only people who will decide the future of Canada are Canadians at the ballot box. Canada will always be proud, sovereign, and independent, and we will NEVER be the 51st state," Poilievre wrote in a post on X. "Today, Canadians can vote for change so we can strengthen our country, stand on our own two feet, and stand up to America from a position of strength." Canadian Prime Minister and Liberal Party leader Mark Carney posted a video on X on Monday with the message: "This is Canada -- and we decide what happens here." Latest polls show the Liberals ahead of the Conservatives, when only a few months ago the Conservatives held a 25-point lead. Canada has a parliamentary system, meaning if the Liberals win a majority of seats in the election, or are able to form a minority government with members of another party, Carney will continue to serve as prime minister. Nearly all of the polls for the election are expected to close by 9:30 p.m. ET on Monday.
ABC News
22-04-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Liberal candidate for Kooyong Amelia Hamer accuses Monique Ryan of releasing 'dirt file' on her
On the streets of Toorak, Armadale and Malvern in Melbourne, the talk of the town is who will win the seat of Kooyong – independent Dr Monique Ryan or her young Liberal opponent Amelia Hamer. For the first time the well-heeled voters of these affluent suburbs will be part of the Kooyong electorate following a redistribution of the boundaries after the seat of Higgins was abolished. The margin is tight between Dr Ryan and Ms Hamer – 2.2 per cent to be exact – and the campaigns have been awash with allegations of misdeeds and dirty tactics. Ms Hamer has accused Dr Ryan and her team of putting together a "dirt file" on her. Liberal candidate for Kooyong, Amelia Hamer, has accused Monique Ryan's team of putting together a dirt file on her. ( Facebook ) That included information about the grand-niece of former Victorian premier Rupert Hamer being the "Let's be very clear, the way people found out was because of Monique Ryan's volunteers," Ms Hamer told 7.30. " Monique Ryan's team put together a dirt file and put that on the internet and so I just want to make that clear. " Dr Ryan did not deny the existence of the dirt file, telling 7.30, "I have over 3,000 volunteers supporting my campaign and I do not control what they choose to post on their personal social media accounts. "As I understand, this information is publicly available online." Ms Hamer is also a landlord who owns properties in London and Canberra, and that information, uncovered by The Age, contradicted her own comments that the 31-year-old identified as a renter. Dr Ryan's husband was also caught Dr Ryan, not for the first time, has described the incident as a "mistake". 'Look, my husband made a mistake, and it was an error that, you know, we both apologised for straight away," Ms Ryan told 7.30. "It was unfortunate and we're really sorry that it happened." Senator speaks up Liberal Senator Jane Hume has been on the campaign trail with Kooyong candidate Amelia Hamer. ( Facebook: Amelia Hamer ) While the battle between the two candidates has been filled with tension, another politician loomed large when 7.30 spoke to Ms Hamer. Flanked by Senator Jane Hume at a local park in Balwyn North, Ms Hamer told 7.30 the senator was only there for "support". Ms Hamer's campaign has faced questions, including why she announced on social media she would preference the Libertarian Party. Ms Hamer told 7.30 it is because they are "a reasonable party". "We allocate the preferences according to the parties that, you know, we think that the order should be." Amelia Hamer is the grand-niece of former Victorian premier Rupert Hamer. ( ABC News: Kate Ashton ) The Libertarian Party's policies include abolishing renewable energy targets, publicly funded childcare and the education department. The Victorian Libertarian's senate candidate, Jordan Dittloff, spent more than two years in prison after defrauding 47 victims — but having a criminal history does not disqualify people from running for or even being elected to parliament. When asked about Mr Dittloff, Ms Hamer said, "Look, I don't have any comment." When pressed on her justification for preferencing the Libertarian Party, Senator Hume spoke up on behalf of Ms Hamer. Libertarian Party candidate Jordan Dittloff spent two years in prison. ( Facebook: Jordan Dittloff ) "Preference deals are a decision for the division and they make them right around the country at the same time. It's not something that's done necessarily on a seat-by-seat basis," Senator Hume said. Senator Hume went on to describe Dr Monique Ryan's views as "extreme". 'Monique Ryan votes with the Greens 77 per cent of the time and then denies that she votes with the Greens 77 per cent of the time,' Senator Hume said. Green, teal or true independent? Dr Ryan shocked the Liberal Party when she defeated former treasurer Josh Frydenberg in 2022. Now the Liberal Party's main allegation against her is that she is a Greens candidate in disguise. It was a claim she denied when 7.30 met with Dr Ryan at her campaign headquarters in Hawthorn East. 'Look, in this term of parliament the Greens have put up 37 motions to a vote in the house and I voted for them on 26 occasions out of 37," Dr Ryan said. "That's not very many." Monique Ryan says she is still supported by Climate 200 but that it's "not actually that much". ( ABC News: Kate Ashton ) In 2022 she was part of a teal wave of independents elected to federal parliament which included Zoe Daniel and Allegra Spender. The teal description is not something Dr Ryan agrees with, instead describing herself as a "true" independent, saying there is no such thing as a teal. 'It's something that the media has come up with ... and I kind of get where it comes from, you know, of a certain sort of politician, but there is no party. There's no formal organisation,' she said. Monique Ryan, second from left, was part of the wave of "teal" independents that swept into parliament last election. ( ABC News: Matt Roberts ) The teal independents were widely funded by Climate 200. The candidates campaigned on climate policies and integrity in politics at the 2022 election. Dr Ryan said she's still supported by Climate 200 but said it's "not actually that much". When asked about this election she couldn't name her current biggest financial backer. "I've had a few individuals who have been quite generous with their financial support," she said. "I believe [I've] had more than 2,000 individual donors.' Watch , Mondays to Thursdays 7:30pm on and ABC TV Contact 7.30 Do you know more about this story? Get in touch with 7.30
Yahoo
20-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump's tariff fiasco is an opportunity to reboot the Libertarian Party
A corrupt Republican president abuses his executive power to restrict free markets, placing legal constraints on free trade in goods and services, and then uses the granting of specific exceptions to shake down contributions from businessmen who are hurt by the restrictions. This political extortion is seen as such an abuse of office and betrayal of conservative economics principles that members of his own party band together to oppose him. That corrupt Republican president? Richard Milhouse Nixon. When President Nixon imposed his wage and price controls across the country, it wasn't just economically destructive; it was also corrupt. As Ciara Torres-Spelliscy noted for the Brennan Center, by creating a blanket policy that crushed businesses, Nixon was soliciting connected business owners to petition him for exceptions in exchange for large donations to his campaign. Nixon's wage and price controls inspired David Nolan to gather a group of free market Republicans — all disgusted with Nixon's schemes — in his Colorado living room. This is how the Libertarian Party was born. President Donald Trump has in many ways followed Richard Nixon's economic playbook, though instead of wage and price controls, he has chosen to impose arbitrary blanket tariffs, violating free market principles (and trade deals he negotiated) by putting import taxes on everything American businesses and consumers buy from other countries. Trump has a record of targeting media companies and law firms to extract personal benefits. Imposing tariffs gives him another tool in the box. He may not have used it yet, but he's already made public statements about how countries can 'come to the table' to negotiate an exception from these punitive tariffs. Some impacted businesses are going to ask for exceptions from import taxes and may assume their chances of success are far greater if they offer something of value to Trump's interests. Now would be a great time for the Libertarian Party, founded in opposition to Republican corruption, to oppose another president's meddling with the markets, potentially for his own gain. Alas, the current iteration of the party is far more dedicated to fighting MAGA-friendly culture war battles than standing up for free market principles. In the wake of the 2017 Charlottesville 'Unite the Right' rally and the neo-Nazi murder of counteractivist Heather Heyer, then-Libertarian Party executive director Wes Benedict publicly rejected the hateful and bigoted views of the alt-right groups who marched to chants of 'Jews will not replace us.' However, as a reaction to that anti-bigotry stance, a group called the Mises Caucus was formed to try to steer the Libertarian Party toward a more MAGA-friendly platform that would welcome anti-immigrant, anti-abortion and antisemitic conservatives into a historically pro-freedom party. It took five years, but by the 2022 Libertarian National Convention, the Mises Caucus was able to install an anti-vaccine activist and former paralegal, Angela McArdle, as Libertarian National Committee Chair and remove the anti-bigotry and pro-choice planks from the Libertarian platform. With a majority of the national committee sympathetic to a far-right Republican distortion of libertarian principles, Trumpworld figures like Ric Grenell — who has served in both Trump administrations — started communicating directly with McArdle about ways that the Libertarian Party could assist Trump by delivering the Libertarian vote in what promised to be a very close election. During the 2024 campaign, Angela McArdle seemed more interested in providing public support for fellow anti-vaccine activist Democratic (and later, independent) candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Republican candidate Donald Trump than she did for Libertarian Party nominee Chase Oliver. Both Kennedy and Trump were given prime-time speaking spots at the Libertarian National Convention in Washington, D.C., where Trump promised to pardon Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht — who was serving a life sentence in prison — if elected. McArdle used that promise as a fig leaf for her deliberate sabotage of the Libertarian Party's candidate that contributed to his disappointing fourth-place finish behind Jill Stein of the Green Party and a collapse of the Libertarian Party's finances. (Trump made good on that promise, pardoning Ulbricht a day after taking office.) Facing multiple lawsuits and allegations of embezzlement by a former Libertarian Party gubernatorial candidate, Angela McArdle resigned as LNC Chair in January 2025, replaced by Florida business owner Stephen Nekhaila, who defeated a Mises Caucus candidate for the job. (In response to questions about the accusations, McArdle told the libertarian-leaning Reason magazine that she was the victim of 'aggressive cyberstalking' by her accusers, and added, 'I will be working with new appointees in the Trump administration to find out if the FBI and State Dept have been involved in the attacks on the LP and me.') This rejection of the far-right elements in the Libertarian Party, combined with the urgency of President Trump's tariff schemes, has created an opportunity for Americans —particularly those leaning Republican — who support free people and free markets to rejoin the Libertarian Party and join the opposition to the Trump administration. Tariffs are taxes Americans pay. The libertarian position is that we should be fighting for zero tariffs, and we certainly shouldn't let a president unilaterally usurp the constitutional authority of Congress to impose taxes. Republicans, particularly Trump's senior trade adviser Peter Navarro, over the past several months have engaged in charm offensive on tariffs, trying to persuade the Libertarian voter that they should adopt the Republican position on the issue instead of the party's formative view that tariffs harm the United States of America. Navarro has claimed to have proprietary data demonstrating the positive nature of, and even necessity of tariffs. MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, however, exposed this charm offensive as being built on a house of cards, as supported by at least one fictional expert, 'Ron Vara,' that Navarro made up out of whole cloth. There is no legitimate reason for Libertarians in the Trump administration's orbit to be supporting these tariffs. Thankfully, Stephen Nekhaila, the new Chair of the Libertarian Party, has recommitted the party to the fight against Trump's tariffs. America needs a vocal Libertarian Party to stand up against a corrupt Republican president even more now than it did in 1971. It's time for individual libertarians to break with the Republican Party as they did 50 years ago and express our shared condemnation of tariffs and price controls, in our voter registrations where possible, in the voting booth, and even, if possible, at protests with like-minded individuals. This article was originally published on
