Michael Olaya

Why it matters

America's next frontier is inward, on the nearly one-third of the country held as federal land. Freedom Cities, proposed by President Trump and developed by groups like the Frontier Foundation and the Freedom City Coalition, are master-planned cities chartered on that land to serve as laboratories for better governance, faster building, and frontier industry. Done right, a million-citizen Freedom City is a working blueprint for an American city built around abundant energy, advanced manufacturing, and frontier technology, and proof that the US can still build, at speed, on its own soil.

How

• Secure the legal foundation. Work with the Frontier Foundation, Freedom City Coalition, and federal lawmakers to get the draft Freedom City Act introduced and passed, establishing a Freedom City Board (Commerce, Treasury, Interior) with authority under the Property and Supremacy Clauses to charter cities on federal land, preempt state and local rules, and waive or modify select federal regulations under a 99-year lease and regulatory concession.
• Win a charter. Submit a development proposal to the Board that puts federal land to productive use, creates jobs and housing for American families, advances technologies critical to national defense and the economy, protects the environment, and funds federal and state budgets through application, lease, and concession fees rather than conventional taxation.
• Site selection. Identify federal parcels (or private land placed in federal trust) with the geography, water access, and transmission/fiber adjacency to host both a 10GW industrial core and a city of 1M residents.
• Anchor with a 10GW technology park for AI data centers, advanced manufacturing, and defense tech. The economic engine that funds the city and attracts talent.
• Power it off grid, behind the meter, with a portfolio of natural gas, enhanced geothermal plus storage, and nuclear (SMRs and, longer term, gigawatt-scale) generation.
• Master-plan as one coupled system. Energy, water, food, housing, transportation, and connectivity designed together so the city operates fully off grid from day one.
• Modern regulatory stack. Use the Board's waiver authority to run permitting, building codes, occupational licensing, and land use as a streamlined, outcomes-based regime, measured against the same goals as federal rules but optimized for speed, cost, and innovation.
• Build in compounding phases. Research outpost to 1,000-resident neighborhood pilot (aquaponics, on-site generation, modular housing) to 10k, 100k, then 1M, with standardized building blocks (power pods, water loops, hexayurt-derived housing) so each phase is faster and cheaper than the last.
• Construct AI-first. Deploy an AI-native construction operating system designed for a workforce where humanoid and autonomous robots build alongside humans, making 1M-citizen build-out tractable on a generational timeline.