Donald Trump wants to win the support of libertarians, but his actual record on expanding the federal government and eroding liberty is appalling.

After claiming he would wipe out the national debt in eight years, he signed massive spending increases and created the highest ever federal debt—even before the coronavirus pandemic began.

Despite repeating over and over that he wants to end wars and bring home the troops, Trump actually increased our military presence in the Middle East and launched attacks in multiple countries without congressional approval—record strikes in places like Afghanistan and Somalia.

He also vetoed measures passed by Congress to limit U.S. involvement in Yemen’s civil war, block weapons sales that support it, and prevent war with Iran. More than half of Trump’s vetoes (five of eight) have been against measures trying to limit U.S. military aggression abroad.

Trump sometimes acts like he’s opposed to the military-industrial complex, even suggesting the Pentagon wants “to do nothing but fight wars” in order to keep defense contractors happy, but no one has been a bigger booster of the defense industry than Trump.

Trump has overseen a significant increase in U.S. military spending and brags about how much is being spent on military equipment. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1213689342272659456

He also bypassed Congress to push through weapons sales to foreign countries, including billions of dollars in arms to Saudi Arabia—and he used the prospect of lucrative arms sales to excuse the Saudis after their government’s murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Trump loves to tout his record on criminal justice reform, but he appointed attorneys general that have expanded civil asset forfeiture and ended Department of Justice policies that were intended to limit marijuana enforcement and reduce harsh criminal sentencing.

Trump’s AGs have also worked to impose the federal government on state and local criminal justice systems by attacking local efforts at reform.

He has fought federal policing reform, and he sent federal police to interfere in matters within local officials’ jurisdictions.

Trump also revived the federal death penalty. He’s executed more people in the last few months than his predecessors had in more than 60 years.

He detained an American citizen without charge or trial for over a year.

Trump rails against surveillance of his own associates, but he signed FISA 702 and a Patriot Act reauthorization, hired DoJ leadership that supports warrantless surveillance, and attacked private companies for refusing to build government backdoors into every person’s phone.

He says he will “always protect your Second Amendment right,” but he banned bump stocks, expressed support for red flag laws, and declared that we should “take the guns first, go through due process second.”

Trump raised taxes by charging Americans billions of dollars in tariffs, and he negotiated a trade deal (USMCA) that actually increases the federal government’s interference in trade between individuals.

He supported government central planning in the labor market by taking measures to further limit legal immigration.

Trump has spent billions of taxpayer dollars bailing out the agriculture industry that he harmed with his own trade policies, and he signed a bill extending the cronyist Export-Import Bank for seven years.

To get funding for his wall, he used unprecedented claims of emergency power to usurp Congress’s authority over appropriations, and now he’s using eminent domain to seize private land to speed up construction.

Trump directed a federal crackdown on vaping products and signed a bill raising the federal tobacco age to 21.

He threatened online speech by signing an executive order on Section 230 in which he sought to rewrite the law and punish private actors for exercising their First Amendment-secured rights.

Trump doesn’t respect federalism or separation of powers, declaring that “when somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total, and that’s the way it’s got to be.”

He consistently undermines local decision making and supports new forms of central planning.

Donald Trump is no libertarian or friend to libertarians. He’s a national populist whose agenda centers around collective identity, not individual rights.

We shouldn’t confuse Trump’s anti-establishment rhetoric with anti-establishment actions. He’s been the greatest gift to establishment politicians like Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy, who needed Trump’s celebrity to sell their unpopular schemes to the grassroots of the party.

The least principled, least constitutionally aligned members of the GOP now face almost no scrutiny with respect to their policies and records. As long as they say they’re firmly behind Trump, they’re good to go, regardless of how much they grow government or violate our rights.

Meanwhile, libertarians have been taken for a ride. It’s been an almost entirely one-way relationship. Libertarians lend their support and credibility to Trump on many issues, while Trump pays them lip service on those issues and makes mostly inconsequential gestures.

Trump massively gains from this exchange, and libertarianism loses. By neutralizing or co-opting potential libertarian critics, Trump is left largely unchecked with respect to his unlibertarian actions, while libertarianism is falsely and harmfully cast as a relative of Trumpism.

If libertarians are to succeed at moving politics in a more liberty-oriented direction, then we must build our own brand as far away from Donald Trump as possible. Libertarianism’s compelling vision for securing individual rights has to get out from under the shadow of Trumpism.