Trump backs flying cars, calls for ‘new cities’ in campaign video

Former president Donald Trump unveiled his utopian ideas for the future of America in a campaign video released Friday. Painting a bleak picture of America’s present compared to a sunny perspective on his own former administration, he promised to implement radical ideas to get back America’s “boldness.”

“Our objective will be a quantum leap in the American standard of living. That’s what will happen,” Trump said in the video.

That “quantum leap” includes using 0.5 percent of all federal land — 3.2 million acres — to charter up to ten “freedom cities,” he said. The federal government would run a contest to select designs for the cities submitted by the general public. 

“These freedom cities will reopen the American frontier, re-ignite American imagination and give hundreds of thousands of young people and other people — all hard-working families — a new shot at homeownership and in fact, the American dream,” Trump said.

Almost all of the federal government’s 640 million acres of land is completely undeveloped and much of it is in the rural west of the country. Nevada is home to the most federal land in the country, with 63 percent of the state owned by the federal government.

The freedom cities plan shares some similarities with NEOM, the city building project by the Saudi Arabian government in the country’s west. The most notable Saudi project, The Line, plans to build a 110-mile long, 660 foot wide, completely self-sustaining and car-free city in the desert.

Trump also called for massive investment into vertical takeoff and landing personal vehicles (eVTOL). Trump claimed that companies in the U.S. and China are developing the technology and that the U.S. should take the lead. 

No major U.S. or foreign automaker has proposed such a design. In 2009, NASA released a concept for an eVTOL, which was followed by concepts from Boeing, Bell and Airbus. 

Trump also called on lowering the cost of living and making cars and housing more affordable, as well as launching a “beautification campaign,” tearing down “ugly buildings” and building parks. 

He did not specify how he planned to implement those ideas.

Another proposal from the 4-minute video was for “baby bonuses,” grants from the government given to new mothers. 

Trump launched his presidential campaign in the days after the November 2022 midterm election. He leads early polls for the Republican primary for president.