Trump, Gaza, and the Network State: Tech Colonialism Rises
The Point: Trump Sees Opportunity
Donald Trump is threatening to ethnically cleanse Gaza and turn the Palestinian territory into a Network State.
The Back Story: Trump's Sick Gaza Fantasy
It seemed as if nothing could eclipse Trump’s openly corrupt decision to accept a $400 million bribe from the government of Qatar (in the form of a plane) during his trip to the Middle East. But then Trump managed to propose something even more shocking and vile.
On May 15, Trump said he wants to seize Gaza and create a so-called “freedom zone,” which seems to be his name for a Network State.
“I have concepts for Gaza that I think are very good. Make it a freedom zone,” said Trump. “Let the United States get involved and make it just a freedom zone. I’d be proud to have the United States have it, take it, make it a freedom zone.”
Trump went on to suggest that Gaza is open for the taking since Israel has already destroyed most of it.
“I have aerial shots where, I mean, there’s practically no building standing,” he said. “It’s not like you’re trying to save something. There’s no building. People are living under the rubble of buildings that collapsed, which is not acceptable.”
His proposal for a new city in Gaza came amid media reports that he is considering a plan to remove one million Palestinians from Gaza and ship them to Libya.
This is not the first time Trump has fantasized about stealing Gaza. He also floated the idea in February.
“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip,” Trump said during a White House press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Feb. 6. “We’ll own it ... We have an opportunity to do something that could be phenomenal ... the Riviera of the Middle East.”
“I do see a long-term ownership position,” he said.
Though it sounded like one of Trump’s trial balloon provocations, a White House official assured the press that it’s not a “bluff.”
“The president is absolutely serious,” one White House official told the New York Post in February.
At the time, Trump shared an AI-generated video that showed a dystopian, futuristic Gaza. It featured a Trump Gaza casino, a golden statue of Trump himself, and multiple shots of dollar bills raining from the sky.
Analysis: Trump and the New Digital Colonialism
Trump’s fixation on taking Gaza, like his obsession with acquiring Greenland, reveals an alignment with the Network State ideology. But even as the president openly pines to create these strange new territories, the mainstream press still refuses to make the connection.
Given the general media blackout on this subject, I will push in the opposite direction.
Trump is clearly enamored with the Network State idea, perhaps for a simple reason: real estate. Stripped to its basics, the Network State — which seeks to create a new class of privately-owned cities around the world — is digital colonialism. It’s about seizing land and creating valuable real estate, places where the wealthy can evade democracy and laws, and live like kings.
Trump is a real estate baron who wants to be a king. And it sure seems as if he’s embracing his own version of the Network State ideology as a tool to further his power and profit. He's already selling off public lands and planning to build ten new “freedom cities” in the United States. Now, he is developing the idea into a plank of foreign policy, using bully diplomacy to push for land acquisition.
Trump’s Gaza plan fuses necropolitics with venture capital. Flatten a place, declare it “free,” and then auction it to the highest bidder. This is the Network State dream in its most ghoulish incarnation: a tech fascist casino built atop the disaster capitalism of genocide and mass displacement.
Trump sees the destruction of Gaza as a business opportunity. The same instincts that drove him to hawk steaks, casinos, and mail-order diplomas are now shaping his global policy. Gaza is just the latest dystopian canvas for Trump’s imperial real estate fantasy — a scorched-earth startup zone.
To me, it’s clear that Trump has bought into the Network State ideology. I don’t think it’s because he has read Curtis Yarvin or Balaji Srinivasan. Instead, I believe Trump sees it as a way to get paid and amass power. That also explains why he fully embraced crypto after previously describing it (accurately) as a “scam.” Now, he and his family are profiting from the scam. The Trump family’s net worth has increased by an estimated $2.9 billion in a few short months thanks to crypto.
So, it makes perfect sense that Trump would also seek his piece of the Network State scheme. It’s colonialism with crypto gloss, and an innovative mechanism for corruption and bribery. The Network State ideology also offers the ideal justification for authoritarian strongmen and billionaires to claim territory and sovereignty under the guise of “freedom.”
Trump’s key Silicon Valley allies, including Marc Andreessen and Peter Thiel, are longtime supporters of these ideas. They even funded a company, Pronomos Capital, which plans to invest in Network State cities all over the world.
When Trump speaks of creating new democracy-free zones in the U.S., Greenland, or Gaza, he’s articulating the next frontier of tech fascism. And why not? In all his grotesque simplicity, Trump is the perfect CEO for the world they seek to build.
Regardless of whether Trump is serious about stealing Gaza, he is clearly working to normalize the idea of creating new democracy-free corporate zones. This is the Network State.
But don’t take my word for it. Earlier this month, Anduril founder Palmer Luckey gave a statement to Pirate Wires in which he proposed a new “Liberty City” at the site of the U.S. military base in Guantanamo, Cuba. (Pirate Wires is a website owned by Peter Thiel deputy Mike Solana.)
Luckey described his idea for the new city as a “gilded megafortress broadcasting capitalism’s bounty,” a “tropical brain-drain machine that accelerates regime collapse in Havana.” He framed it as the “Singapore of the Caribbean.”
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, an openly devout Network State supporter, shared the piece on Twitter.
“We need more special economic zones in the U.S.,” wrote Armstrong, commenting on Luckey’s essay. “We should designate ~10 or so like this across different pieces of federal land, each with its own exemption from federal and state law. One for bio, one for drones/aviation, one for crypto, one for robotics, one for mining, etc. See what happens without so much regulation within a small sandbox.”
“@ProsperaGlobal can help with this,” he added, naming the Network State project in Honduras that is currently suing the Honduran government for nearly $11 billion.
Balaji Srinivasan, Coinbase’s former chief technology officer and author of The Network State: How to Start a New Country, then boosted Armstrong’s tweet —driving home the Network State connection.
Anduril, a drone manufacturer, is a major U.S. military contractor. Coinbase, which has become a major player in politics, appears to be on the cusp of getting pro-crypto legislation passed in Washington. Yet, to my knowledge, no major news outlet mentioned this bizarre proposal to build a Network State in Cuba.
Of course, Luckey and Armstrong may not need to leave U.S. shores to make this idea a reality. Trump has already proposed the creation of ten so-called “freedom cities” on federal land.
Conclusion: Normalizing the Network State
Trump is marketing the core idea of the Network State. The essence: privatized sovereignty, justified by the language of innovation and freedom, but enforced through capital and control. Tech fascism with gold-plated crypto casinos.
Perhaps Hunter S. Thompson got it right when he wrote that “Circus-Circus is what the whole hep world would be doing Saturday night if the Nazis had won the war.”
Trump may not articulate the Network State ideology in theoretical terms, but he embodies its instincts. He is the perfect figurehead for a vision of the future where authoritarianism is draped in the banners of tech and entrepreneurship, and where destruction becomes opportunity rather than tragedy.
The signs are increasingly clear. What remains to be seen is whether the political and media establishment will take them seriously — before they become reality.