Authoritarianism Expert Explains Why Libertarian Boos Will Be 'Lethal Blow' For Trump

Authoritarianism expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat explained the impact that the booing of Donald Trump during his speech at Saturday’s Libertarian Party National Convention may have on the former president.

On Sunday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Weekend,” Ben-Ghiat said the relentless jeering of the presumptive GOP nominee was “so interesting” given how he’s been stuck in a New York courtroom amid his ongoing hush money trial and likely feels “he has to be everywhere and he actually needs those cheers for his ego all the more.”

Trump may have known he would be booed during his address to the Libertarian Party audience, acknowledged the New York University history professor and author of “Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present.”

“But the booing is also a kind of lethal blow to the kind of ego that the strongman has because the secret of the strongman is that they are very weak and they are very brittle,” she added. “And so, right now, I think he’s going everywhere because he’s desperate for attention that is not him falling asleep in the courtroom.”

Watch from the 4:20 point here:

Earlier this year, Ben-Ghiat said “autocrats are fragile and insecure creatures” who use ritual humiliation to stay ahead of their rivals.

The professor has previously warned Trump will never leave office should he win back the White House in November’s election and has described the GOP as an “an autocratic party operating in a democracy.”

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