President Trump’s recent address to Congress was a spectacle designed to project strength and success. However, beneath the surface of his grand declarations lies a troubling reality that libertarians cannot ignore.
The United States resembles a massive ship, its passengers, distracted by entertainment, outrage cycles, and partisan bickering, oblivious to the perilous course it is on. The bridge has been commandeered by individuals who are either incompetent, insane, or intentionally steering toward disaster. A few discerning voices attempt to alert the masses, pleading for action before it’s too late. Yet, convincing people to act before impact is the hardest part; most won’t care until the iceberg is tearing through the hull.
Trump boasts about signing nearly 100 executive orders in 43 days and taking over 400 executive actions, a record he proudly compares to the likes of George Washington. But libertarians don’t measure success by the number of decrees issued from the Oval Office. This is just another example of executive overreach, where laws are no longer written by Congress but dictated by a single individual.
Every administration expands its power, setting a dangerous precedent for the next. The solution is not finding the “right” president but dismantling the unchecked authority of the office itself. A government that can impose, restrict, and direct the economy at will is not a free government, it is a centralized command structure, no different in nature from the regimes we claim to oppose abroad.
That said, we do applaud the move to withdraw from the World Health Organization, a globalist bureaucratic entity that seeks to supersede American sovereignty, dictate pandemic response, control travel, and determine what constitutes disinformation. The WHO does not serve the American people; it serves its own interests and those of the governments that fund it.
The Libertarian National Committee has already passed a resolution urging the United States to withdraw, recognizing that decisions affecting Americans should be made by Americans, not unelected international bodies. This is one of the rare instances where an administration has taken a step in the right direction by reducing Washington’s entanglements, and we encourage more moves toward decentralization and the restoration of self-governance.
Trump frames his economic policy as a victory for national sovereignty, but his approach remains rooted in protectionism, particularly through new tariffs on foreign aluminum, copper, lumber, and steel. He claims these will restore American industry, but tariffs do not punish foreign nations, they punish American consumers by increasing prices and fueling inflation.
Protectionism does not create prosperity; it breeds inefficiency, raises the cost of living, and invites retaliatory tariffs that cripple American exports.
If the president is truly committed to economic growth, he would remove barriers to trade, eliminate corporate welfare, and stop Washington from dictating the marketplace. Instead, we get the same old mercantilist policies repackaged under a new banner, proving once again that both parties believe in government interference, they just argue over which industries should receive special treatment.
The creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by Elon Musk, is presented as a bold step in eliminating waste. Yet Congress, which cheered this move, is the very entity that approved reckless spending in the first place, and continues to do so. If waste, fraud, and abuse are uncovered, the budget should be cut accordingly, not just redirected to new government pet projects.
If DOGE is serious about accountability, it should start with the Pentagon, which has failed every audit and continues to funnel trillions into black budget programs without oversight. The military-industrial complex is the final boss of government waste, and it will not go down without a fight. Until politicians are willing to take on the untouchable defense contractors, all talk of fiscal responsibility is just another con.
The immigration crisis is another example of politicians refusing to address the root cause of a problem they helped create. Trump celebrates the lowest border crossings on record, attributing it to military deployment and increased enforcement, but like every administration before him, he ignores the fact that our legal immigration system is fundamentally broken. It is not just a problem of law enforcement, it is a problem of policy.
A good immigration system would remove perverse government incentives while streamlining legal pathways, ensuring that those who wish to contribute to America can do so without jumping through an impossible bureaucratic maze. Instead, politicians of both parties use immigration as a wedge issue, blaming enforcement or leniency while failing to reform the system itself.
The result? A nation that oscillates between border chaos and heavy-handed crackdowns, with no lasting solution in sight.
Trump also takes credit for banning Critical Race Theory, reversing DEI mandates, and enforcing federal recognition of only two genders. While libertarians might agree that these policies should not be mandated, the federal government should not be wielding power over cultural battles at all.
The state should not be in the business of dictating social values, whether left-wing or right-wing. Cultural issues should be left to individuals, families, and communities to decide, not decreed by executive order. The same conservatives who decry Washington’s influence in their lives should be the first to recognize that government-mandated culture wars, no matter the side, are a dangerous road.
On the foreign policy front, we applaud attempts to end the war between Ukraine and Russia, which has brought the world to the brink of nuclear catastrophe while costing countless lives on both sides. However, peace will not be achieved by continuing Washington’s interventionist policies and military entanglements.
We encourage the withdrawal from NATO and other entangling alliances that serve only to drag the United States into conflicts that have nothing to do with our national security. A true “America First” policy is one of non-interventionism, not simply choosing which wars to fund.
We must end all military aid, including to Israel and Taiwan. They are more than welcome to purchase weapons from our private sector, but not a single tax dollar should be spent arming foreign nations while Americans struggle under the weight of inflation and debt.
We also find common ground in deregulation and reducing bureaucratic overreach. Trump pledged to eliminate ten regulations for every new one introduced, freeze federal hiring, and fire government employees who refuse to return to in-person work.
While we oppose rule by executive order, slashing the bureaucracy and ending Washington’s micromanagement of the economy is something libertarians have long championed. We also recognize that lifting restrictions on domestic energy production, while avoiding subsidies, allows for a free-market energy sector rather than one strangled by government mandates.
Trump ends his speech with a triumphant declaration: “The Golden Age of America has only just begun.” But no Golden Age has ever been built on endless government spending, protectionism, and executive overreach.
The real Golden Age of America was built by free individuals, entrepreneurs, and risk-takers, not by politicians and bureaucrats. If America is to reclaim its prosperity, it will not be through tariffs, executive orders, or grand government initiatives, it will come from getting government out of the way and allowing innovation, voluntary exchange, and personal responsibility to flourish.
Trump’s speech, like those before it, is a performance designed to pacify the public while government continues its reckless spending, overreach, and control. The real issue is not whether a Republican or Democrat stands at the podium, it is the size and power of the state itself.
No president will save us because the problem is the presidency, the bureaucracy, and the entire machine of centralized control. Libertarians stand for something different: a government that exists only to protect rights, not to dictate lives, if it is fit to exist at all.
America’s ship is headed for an iceberg, and the passengers are still dancing on the deck. If we wait for politicians to change course, we will sink. The answer is not a new captain, it is taking back the ship and restoring liberty before it is too late.