Libertarians sound alarm: Trump vindicates their worst fears

During the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan led a fragile right-wing coalition that included everyone from neocons to libertarians to evangelical Christian fundamentalists and the Religious Right. There was plenty of infighting within the Reagan coalition back then; Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Arizona) and the Moral Majority's Rev. Jerry Falwell Sr. were bitter foes. Now, in 2026 — more than a year into Donald Trump's second presidency — divisions on the right persist.

Some of Trump's most enthusiastic supporters are Religious Right evangelicals, while Never Trumpers include a variety of neocons and libertarians. In an op-ed published by the New York Times on February 9, Reason editor-in-chief Katherine Mangu-Ward lays out a variety of ways in which Trump's second presidency embodies everything that libertarians oppose.

"On immigration, speech and trade," Mangu-Ward warns, "Americans are living in a libertarian's nightmare. Masked federal officials are swarming areas far from the border, shooting American citizens and whisking away children in the name of immigration enforcement. Armed National Guardsmen walk the streets of several cities under the banner of vague emergency mandates to maintain law and order. Legal visa holders are being deported for expressing their opinions on Gaza and Charlie Kirk. Tariffs on China have been set at 10, 20, 54, 145 and 30 percent in just the last few months. The ownership of TikTok, Intel and U.S. Steel have all become matters in which the president has taken a personal interest — and threatened dire consequences if his wishes are not taken into account."

The Reason editor-in-chief continues, "These stories represent a terrifying pattern and an undeniable vindication of the long-held libertarian view that the steady growth in the size of the federal government and executive power would lead to precisely this kind of runaway authoritarianism."

" Trump 2.0," according to Mangu-Ward argues, "has made the libertarian case more obvious, even as libertarians have been consigned to the fringes."

"Consider Mr. Trump's record on free speech," Mangu-Ward argues. "For years, he has been threatening to give libel laws more bite and pull licenses from unsympathetic broadcasters…. Mr. Trump has a record of threatening media and platforms under various statutory and emergency authorities…. The good news is that Americans are increasingly waking up to the dark reality of our overbearing federal government."

The Reason editor-in-chief adds, "A Gallup survey released in October 2025 found that a record-high 62 percent say the federal government has 'too much power,' up from 51 percent a year ago and the highest since the question was first asked in 2002…. Similarly, Americans of all stripes have turned dramatically against Mr. Trump’s ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) enforcement actions. There could be — a libertarian can still dream — a grass-roots movement to shrink government that doesn't end up co-opted by one of the major parties, as the Tea Party was."

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