Through both his private-sector career and his time in politics, Donald Trump has earned a reputation for thinking big (or “big league”).
While not all of The Donald’s visionary ideas have come to pass, the 45th president doesn’t let that deter him from continuing to push the envelope, taking things with an “aim for the moon so you land among the stars” attitude.
With the 2024 election amping up and a likely primary challenge from popular Republican Governor Ron DeSantis on the horizon, Trump finds himself faced with the need to draft a platform that will not only distinguish him within the GOP field, but also provide general-election voters a reason to give him another shot in the White House over Joe Biden.
To that end, Trump’s “Quantum Leap” proposal is certainly heavy on the kind of bold ideas he’s known for, with plenty of imagery to capture the public’s imagination — even while it raises many questions about the constitutionality and viability of such a plan.
In his announcement of the plan, Trump said it would include building futuristic cities, known as “Freedom Cities,” on federal land; equipping these cities with air mobility via vertical-takeoff-and-landing vehicles; revitalizing American industry by cutting off Chinese imports; encouraging families by offering “baby bonuses”; and leading a nationwide beautification campaign.
“Past generations of Americans pursued big dreams and daring projects that once seemed absolutely impossible. They pushed across an unsettled continent and built new cities in the wild frontier. They transformed American life with the interstate highway system—magnificent it was. And they launched a vast network of satellites into orbit all around the earth,” Trump said in his video announcing the program.
“But today, our country has lost its boldness. Under my leadership, we will get it back in a very big way. If you look at just three years ago, what we were doing was unthinkable, how good it was, how great it was for our country. Our objective will be a quantum leap in the American standard of living.”
The aspect of this plan gaining the most attention is the part about futuristic cities and flying cars. While there’s arguably a lot that could potentially be beneficial about such developments, this is an area where details would have to be provided in depth to determine whether it would be as good an idea in reality as Trump wants us to think it is on paper.
After all, one could question whether the federal government should be building cities at all. Isn’t this something states and localities should be taking care of? Ideally the lands will be transferred over to the states they reside within. The last thing we want is for the federal government to own and operate myriad cities throughout the country — a collection of Washington, D.C.’s.
And is there really a demand to build entire new cities wholesale? Why would people be drawn en masse to move there? That’s a question that would require analysis to answer, because it would certainly be a waste to build massive cities of the future that end up as ghost towns.
It’s likely that Trump envisions getting contracts with a large number of manufacturers and other businesses who will commit to setting up shop in these Freedom Cities before the construction even starts, because, naturally, you want to make sure there are actually jobs available for all the people you want to populate the town.
For that to happen, however, Trump would need to make sure he invigorates U.S. manufacturing first, or else it would be a huge instance of putting the cart before the horse.
Although, even if Trump’s aim of bringing a significant amount of manufacturing back from China works according to plan, would there be an incentive for these companies to specifically move their operations to the Freedom Cities? Why wouldn’t they simply settle down in existing communities that already have a workforce in place?
Of course, the fact that there are questions to be answered doesn’t mean the “Quantum Leap” can’t work. But, sooner or later, the details would have to come forward or detractors will simply pan it all as “pie in the sky.”
The “baby bonuses” idea is intriguing, and at least represents an understanding that there is a decline in the family and that Trump wants to do something about it.
This idea, perhaps, could be modified to be not a cash giveaway, which might have the undesired effect of encouraging irresponsible people to have children just for the sake of free money, but rather a tax cut for parents.
And why stop at tax cuts for parents? Not only are we all paying too much in taxes, and not only is the government spending far too much on unconstitutional policies, but the income tax is counter to what the Framers of the Constitution intended; it was always unconstitutional and only became “legal” because its proponents got the 16th Amendment passed.
If Trump really wants to do something “big league,” he would do well to go all the way and advocate elimination of the income tax.
That’s an idea that would be sure to win over the Republican base — and make establishment heads explode.
