Releasing libertarians is nothing but Trump's political deal

Devils inside and outside the prison

At the beginning of Trump's term, Musk tweeted to hint that the new president would pardon Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, or "Pirate Roberts". Let me briefly mention his glorious past. Starting in 2011, Ross founded the dark web e-commerce platform Silk Road ("Silk Road"), allowing people to freely buy and sell all kinds of drugs including marijuana and heroin, and thus made a profit of more than 170,000 bitcoins.

And Ross Ulbricht himself was sentenced to life imprisonment. As of 2025, he has been in prison for 11 years, or 4,125 days to be exact, and he has reached the age of 40.

Ordinarily, this was just a daily routine between the police and the drug dealers, but because of the involvement of Bitcoin and Ross Ulbricht, things gradually became outrageous:

1. Ross used Bitcoin and e-commerce platforms to fight against legal currency and the Federal Reserve, not subjectively for profit, because the price of Bitcoin was very low at the time. Under his "standardized" operation, both buyers and sellers needed to operate in good faith and ensure quality and quantity, which to a certain extent created a safer business model than the street sales model, protecting human rights and practicing free market principles.

2. Ross himself is a so-called "libertarian" and a firm believer in Hayek and others. He believes that everyone has the right to choose their own behavior and be responsible for it, which is not essentially hurting others.

In this way, the story gradually became outrageous after the "drug dealer was arrested". After being convicted in 2015, his wife and parents began to take action and joined forces with the Libertarian Party, the de facto third largest party in the United States, to launch the Free Ross movement, hoping to reduce his sentence or grant him amnesty.

With the continued efforts of the movement, many liberal politicians expressed their support for it, and even Ross himself conveyed his thoughts and articles to the outside world through his wife. The X account operated by his wife has more than 230,000 followers, and 600,000 people have signed to request his amnesty.

As the saying goes, "big cases look at politics, medium cases look at influence, and small cases look at law." Ross's arrest and conviction is a legal act, the Free Ross movement is the influence, and the next step is political behavior, and the core of all politics in the United States is elections.

From then on, it was related to Trump, because Ross has become one of the core issues of Liberal voters. Although the Democratic and Republican parties are competing for the presidency in the United States, the Liberal Party also has more than 600,000 votes. In the United States, when the scores of the two parties are very close, any vote is extremely precious.

Therefore, Trump supports strict drug prohibition, but it does not prevent him from making a contrasting statement that he is a liberal. In May 2024, Trump first stated that he would pardon Ross Ulbricht on the day of his election, which was a boast he made at the Libertarian Party National Convention.

There is also an episode in this matter. Robert Francis Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine member of the Kennedy family who was nominated by Trump, was from the Liberal Party. In the Liberal Party’s internal presidential election vote, Kennedy Jr. was eliminated, which planted the seeds for his switch to Trump.

Therefore, Trump's pardon of Ross Ulbricht is purely a vote-grabbing move. According to his attitude towards drugs, he is unlikely to have much interest in "libertarianism". As for whether he will fulfill his promise, it depends on whether Musk's fanning the flames can work. After all, he is a true libertarian.

Libertarianism

As mentioned earlier, Ross himself is in prison, but his heart is in the circle. He has expressed his thoughts in many ways, but there is one thing, he has never "confessed", that is, he is still a so-called libertarian.

In view of this, we must explain what kind of liberalism this is. If it is divided according to the classic schools, liberalism can be roughly divided into three categories: classical liberalism, neoliberalism and social liberalism. This is not without other branches, but these three are the most typical and popular.

Classical liberalism is represented by Rousseau, the standard-bearer of the Enlightenment. It is mainly anti-feudal and anti-monarchy, and emphasizes the importance of personal freedom. Neoliberalism was vigorously promoted by the United States in the late Cold War, emphasizing small government and free markets. For example, Trump's idol, President Reagan, used this to overthrow the Soviet ideology.

There is no need to say much about social liberalism, which is more like a variant of left-wing political thought combined with Keynesian economics, emphasizing welfare and equality, and is relatively marginal in the current political ecology of Europe and the United States.

Ross Ulbricht believes in libertarianism, which is more heavyweight and can even be called absolute liberalism. The core of the theory isEveryone has the right to engage in all behaviors that do not harm others and can act entirely according to their own will, including selling their own body and parts of their own body.

So according to the libertarian program, Ross Ulbricht's behavior does not contain any elements of forcing others to act, and it can even be said that he is helping others realize their free will.

So Vitalik will also support Ross Ulbricht, because he also agrees that everyone has the freedom to profit by selling their bodies;

So Musk also supports Ross Ulbricht. After all, for the intubation behind the brain and biological experiments, opening an online store is really not a "sin."

However, it should be noted that Trump did not actually promise to "pardon" Ross Ulbricht. Some form of sentence reduction is actually a fulfillment of the promise. At a time when the previous US president abused the power of pardon, Trump's pardon of a non-political figure will not encounter much resistance. It all depends on whether he cares about the Liberal Party and its supporters.

Conclusion

If at first glance Trump's pardon of the founder of Silk Road will give people a sense of reconciliation with criminals, but in fact this is just a boring voting game. Even when Trump called himself a liberal, the Liberal Party members attending the meeting laughed because they did not believe him.

In short, Trump's pardon of Ross Ulbricht has become a Rashomon of thousands of people. Bitcoin enthusiasts will think that Trump supports Bitcoin, and liberals will think that Trump supports liberalism.

Everyone hopes to see what they like in it. Freedom is indeed the underlying theory of libertarians. Under the "abuse" of the pardon power by the previous president, the authority of the judiciary has been reduced. Whether Trump pardons Ross Ulbricht or not, it will not be a huge benefit for Bitcoin or liberals.