Donald Trump’s ambitious proposals for sweeping federal action if he wins a second term have left some wondering whether the era of conservative small government is over.
In campaign videos and social media posts, Trump has laid out what he calls Agenda47, his dramatic vision of a federal government that becomes more active in issues normally left to the states.
He proposes building ten “freedom cities” with flying cars on federal land, as well as a free national “American Academy” that bans “wokeness or jihadism” and is funded by levies on private universities.
Trump also talks about crackdowns on everything from MSNBC to hospitals and teachers, with proposals for nationwide bans on transgender medical procedures for teenagers and federal licensing for teachers who “represent patriotic values.”
“If Trump wins, the days of small-government conservatism could be over,” Lanhee Chen, a fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and a former Mitt Romney aide, told the Wall Street Journal.
Donald Trump’s ambitious proposals for sweeping federal action if he wins a second term have left some wondering whether the era of conservative small government is over
Trump is hardly the only figure in the modern Republican Party to advocate government intervention as a cure for its ills, as evidenced by the wave of recent restrictions in red states on abortion, medical procedures for transgender people, and school curricula.
But generally, U.S. conservatives have pushed to limit the federal government, preferring to place decisions in the hands of elected local and state leaders whenever possible.
The difference today seems to lie in “culture war” issues, so often portrayed by both sides as desperate zero-sum battles in which opposing worldviews cannot be tolerated.
Some conservatives argue that Trump’s proposed approach is the only correct response to a liberal agenda that they say would otherwise be imposed on them.
Kevin Roberts, president of the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, told the Journal that conservative policy must “account for the reality of the damage caused by the culture war.”
Here are some elements of Trump’s Agenda47, his plan should he return to the White House as the country’s 47th president:
Freedom cities with flying cars
In a video posted on Truth Social, the ex-president explained that he would take a tiny percentage of federally owned land and hold a competition for the best ideas, then build up to ten “freedom cities” from scratch.
These cities would feature “towering monuments to our true American heroes” and “vertical takeoff and landing vehicles.”
“Just as the United States led the automobile revolution last century, I want to ensure that America, not China, leads this revolution in air mobility,” Trump said.
Additionally, the cities would be full of children, and Trump suggested that the federal government would issue “baby bonuses” during his second term to increase reproduction.
Trump’s plan for a “quantum leap in American living standards” is based on his roots as a real estate developer and his career before becoming a reality TV star and politician.
Trump proposes building ten “freedom cities” with flying cars on federal land (archive image)
He had previously proposed futuristic ideas such as a missile shield and advocated for the creation of the Space Force during his time in the White House.
“Past generations of Americans pursued big dreams and daring projects that once seemed utterly impossible.” They pushed across an unpopulated continent and built new cities in the wild frontiers. They changed American life with the interstate highway system – it was great. And they put a huge network of satellites into orbit around the Earth,” Trump said in the video.
“But today our country has lost its courage,” he said. “Under my leadership, we will get it back in a big way.”
“Our goal will be a quantum leap in American living standards,” he said. “That will happen.”
Trump then talked about the size of federally owned land, saying he would use “a very, very small portion of this land, just a fraction, half a percent – do you believe that?” to build entirely new cities on that basis The designs of the winners of the competition.
“These freedom cities will reopen the borders, rekindle the American imagination, and give hundreds of thousands of young people and others, all hard-working families, a new chance at homeownership and, indeed, the American dream,” he said.
Trump added that “forgotten communities” would be turned into industrial pockets if the U.S. closes the door to imports from China.
He promised to reduce the cost of living, especially the cost of buying a car and building a new house. “And they will be beautiful houses,” he said.
“And I will ask Congress to support baby bonuses for new parents to usher in a new baby boom,” said the ex-president.
He said he would ask all state governors to join him in a national “modernization and beautification campaign” that would include the “abolition of ugly buildings” and the renovation of parks and public spaces.
Free online school called “American Academy”
In a free college proposal that at first glance sounds more like Sen. Bernie Sanders’ vision, Trump promised last month to create a national degree-granting body called the American Academy.
The online-only school would be “strictly apolitical, and neither vigilantism nor jihadism will be allowed,” Trump said in a video announcing the plan.
Trump pointed to recent controversies on campus over the war between Israel and Hamas, saying students and faculty had “expressed support for the savages and jihadists who attacked Israel.”
“We spend more money on higher education than any other country and yet they turn our students into communists, terrorists and sympathizers in many, many different dimensions.” We cannot allow this. “It’s time to offer something completely different,” Trump said.
He proposed funding the new school with “billions and billions” raised through “taxation, fines and lawsuits against overly large private university foundations.”
“We will then use that money to endow a new institution called the American Academy,” Trump said.
“This institution will collect a universe of the highest quality educational content, spanning the full spectrum of human knowledge and skill, and make this material available online, free of charge, to every American citizen.”
“Whether you want lectures or ancient histories, an introduction to financial accounting or training in a trade, the goal will be to retain the content and do it right,” he said.
Trump said the school would award “degrees” that would be recognized by the federal government and federal contractors as equivalent to a bachelor’s degree.
“This will be a revolution in higher education and provide life-changing opportunities for tens of millions of our citizens,” he said.
Raids on MSNBC, hospitals and teachers
In a social media post this week, Trump criticized left-leaning cable news channel MSNBC for using “government-sanctioned airwaves” to criticize him.
“Our so-called ‘government’ should crack down on them and make them pay for their illegal political activities. “There’s much more to come, watch out!” he wrote.
Trump also says he will ask Congress to pass a bill establishing that “only two genders,” determined at birth, will be recognized by the United States.
As part of his crackdown on medical care for transgender people, he will declare that hospitals and health care providers that offer transition hormones or surgeries no longer meet federal health and safety standards and will be barred from receiving federal funding, including Medicaid and Medicare dollars. be excluded.
He would urge Congress to ban hormonal or surgical procedures for transgender minors in all 50 states.
Trump criticized left-leaning cable news channel MSNBC for using “government-sanctioned airwaves” to criticize him. MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow is seen above
Trump would push Congress to ban hormonal or surgical procedures for transgender minors in all 50 states
And while Trump has promised to dismantle the Education Department, he also wants to exert enormous federal influence over local school districts and colleges.
He promises to crack down on “pink-haired communists” who promote critical race theories or “inappropriate” political material in schools.
Trump is proposing a federal program to “certify” teachers “who represent patriotic values, support our way of life and understand that it is not their job to indoctrinate children.”
He says that the schools under his leadership will “teach students to love their country and not to hate their country as they are now taught” and that they will promote “the nuclear family,” including “the roles of mothers and fathers” and the “things that make men and women different and unique.’
He would urge the federal government to give funding priority to states and school districts that eliminate tenure for teachers, establish performance pay to reward good teachers and allow direct parental election of school leaders.
He said he would cut funding for any school that has a vaccination or mask requirement and promote prayer in public schools.
To protect students, he says he will support school districts that allow trained teachers to carry concealed weapons. He would provide federal funding to allow schools to hire veterans, retired police officers and other trained gun owners as armed school guards.
New war on drugs, crackdown on immigration and mandatory controls
The former president has vowed to designate Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and impose the death penalty on drug dealers and human traffickers.
The former president pardoned several dealers during his time in the White House and struggled to understand the apparent contradiction during an interview with Fox News in mid-June.
He bragged about pardoning a convict who had been in prison for 21 years for her involvement in a cocaine ring, and ran into an uproar when the network suggested she would have been executed under his new policy proposal.
On immigration, Trump has abandoned talk of the “most beautiful wall you’ve ever seen,” stretching 1,000 miles across the southern border and “paid for by Mexico.”
During his time in office, Trump built about 440 miles of fences – more than any other president in history – but fewer than 50 miles of new walls where none existed before.
But a second Trump term would “fully secure” the border, he says, and end mass immigration of unskilled people.
Asylum-seeking migrants stand in a makeshift camp at the U.S.-Mexico border as they wait to be processed by U.S. Border Patrol in Jacumba Hot Springs, California, on Friday
Trump also announced in May that he would issue an executive order ending the longstanding policy of granting citizenship to children born in the U.S. to undocumented parents.
The former president has also promised to involve the federal government more closely in local policing practices.
Trump says he would require police to enforce “stop-and-frisk,” the practice of detaining and searching civilians for weapons and drugs.
The tactic was declared unconstitutional by a federal court in 2013 and criticized as discriminatory against racial minorities.
Trump says he will also deploy the National Guard to “restore law and order in liberal cities” and investigate “radical Marxist prosecutors” who refuse to punish criminals.