Jake Porter Investigates – Flirting with MAGA Money Part 3

Flirting with MAGA Money Part 3 – The Deal with The Devil

Endorsements, Pardons, & Embezzlement. This series details how MAGA/MAHA & Libertarian Party leadership nearly grifted the 50 year old party out of existence.

Former Libertarian National Chair, Angela McArdle meets with Trump in 2023. Source:: Angela McArdle’s X account

In late 2023, a quiet operation was launched to neutralize a threat to Donald Trump’s reelection campaign. The target wasn’t a Democrat, but the Libertarian Party (LP).

What followed was a masterclass in political co-optation. Through backroom deals, a highly unusual joint fundraising committee with Robert Kennedy Jr., and blatant internal sabotage, leadership within the Libertarian National Committee (LNC) effectively turned the party of “Principle” into a subsidiary of the Trump campaign.

This is part 3 of the inside story detailing how the LP was hijacked by the Donald Trump’s campaign.

Part 1: The Shady RFK-Trump Scheme That Nearly Destroyed the Libertarian Party

Part 2: The Shady RFK-Trump Scheme That Nearly Destroyed the Libertarian Party – The Joint Fundraising Committee

The Backstory Did Jo Jorgensen Nader Trump in 2020?

To understand why Trump’s team targeted the Libertarian Party, you have to look at the 2020 election data. For years, Republican strategists have privately obsessed over one question: Did Jo Jorgensen “Nader” Trump?

In three states, Libertarian Presidential nominee Jo Jorgensen covered the margin of difference between Trump and Biden. While it is not a view I necessarily hold, some election analysts have speculated that Jorgensen threw the 2020 election to Biden.

David Boaz examined the 2016 election and wrote following for Cato:

So where did those votes go? We do have some polling evidence.

In 2016, a CBS exit poll asked Johnson supporters who they would have voted for in just a two-candidate race. Twenty-five percent said Hillary Clinton, 15 percent Trump, and 55 percent said they wouldn’t have voted at all. (Hat tip to Matt Welch for rounding up all these polls.)

Cambridge University modeled the 2020 election and concluded:

Using this model on 2020 election data, we show that the Libertarian candidate Jo Jorgenson probably cost Donald Trump victory in at least two states: Arizona and Georgia.

Had Trump won Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin, the Electoral College would have ended in 269-269 tie, sending the election to the House of Representatives where the Republican controlled state delegations would have handed Trump the presidency.

Trump’s public narrative focused on voter fraud, but behind closed doors, his consultants took note of a different reality: The Libertarian Party may have cost him the 2020 election and they couldn’t let it happen again in 2024.