Trump's weird 'Freedom Cities' and the Network State cult
Why do Trump, Thiel and Andreessen want to build new cities?
The Point: In another bow to Peter Thiel and the weird Network State tech cult, Donald Trump's campaign platform has a plan to create new charter cities (so-called "Freedom Cities") on federal land. It's a clear indicator of his willingness to sell out the country to his far right Silicon Valley benefactors. In fact, Thiel and Marc Andreessen are funding an entire company – Pronomos Capital – dedicated to building such futuristic tech cities around the world.
The Backstory: "Kamala has nothing like this on her website," declared Republican pollster Patrick Ruffini on Twitter yesterday. His post included text from Trump's campaign website that promises to build "Freedom Cities":
President Trump will work to open up the American Frontier, holding a contest to charter new cities where families and individuals can have a new shot of the American Dream.
True, Kamala Harris has not proposed the creation of bizarre new cities through some kind of gameshow competition. For one thing, it's not clear why such cities are needed – unless, of course, you are familiar with one of the stranger ideas floating around certain tech circles these days.
The Network State cult, a frequent subject of this newsletter, calls for the creation of private cities ruled by non-democratic tech governments. "Freedom Cities" seems like a slight Republican rebranding of the concept. The adoption of the idea suggests that Trump's team – which announced the plan last year – has been searching for ways to align with Weird Tech for quite some time.
Many news outlets wrote about Trump's plan for new cities in 2023, but I can't find one that mentions the term Network State. It's likely that reporters were totally unaware of the concept back in 2023. But in 2024, the idea deserves a fresh look because the same people behind these proposed Network State cities are putting all of their money behind Trump's campaign.
Network State in a nutshell
To recap: The Network State cult calls for the creation of new tech-controlled sovereign cities that would essentially act as miniature countries. These independent territories can be created in one of two ways.
The first is called Voice. This route entails using the political system to take over existing city governments through elections. Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan is currently trying the "voice" method in San Francisco, where he is spearheading a tech-funded campaign to capture control of City Hall. (How do I know this is a Network State project? Because Tan has described his project as such.)
The second method is called Exit. The "exit" method involves finding a bare piece of land that can be built up into a new tech city, ideally with tax breaks or other exemptions from "host governments."
Próspera, on the island of Roatan in Honduras, is an example of this: a tech-run Special Economic Zone where certain rules don't apply. Próspera has become a mecca for unregulated gene therapy experiments.
And then there's our local version: California Forever. This proposed tech city in Solano County was supposed to go to voters for approval on November's ballot, but it has been delayed due to massive community opposition. California Forever denies being a Network State project, but Andreessen is one of its investors.
In addition, Balaji Srinivasan – the main evangelist of the Network State idea – has strongly suggested that California Forever is a Network State project. (Note: Srinivasan has clearly derived his ideas from J.D. Vance associate Curtis Yarvin, who calls these tech-governed dictatorships "patchworks" or "realms" rather than network states.)
This is an important detail because Andreessen, Srinivasan and Thiel are working closely together to make the Network State a reality.
Pronomos: A Network State Company
These three even have an entire company dedicated to building such cities around the world. Pronomos VC promises to build "the cities of tomorrow" with "better laws" for "better lives." Thiel and Andreessen are major funders of Pronomos, where Srinivasan is an advisor. Pronomos' founder is Patri Friedman, grandson of conservative economist Milton Friedman.
From the company's website:
Decades of research on economic development has shown that the primary determinant of prosperity is the quality of a country’s laws and the integrity of its courts, administrators, and other legal institutions.
When institutions are outmoded, corrupted, or failing, the result is untold human suffering. Workers are trapped in low wage jobs and dangerous working environments, children don’t get educated, adults can’t get quality healthcare, and people can’t start businesses to support their families. Yet, upgrading national institutions is notoriously difficult, and consensus on country-level changes should be slow and deliberate.
'Freedom Cities' = Network State
The basic idea – creating sovereign company cities with different laws to help a chosen few escape the problems of wider society – is clearly the same as Trump's little freedom cities. He announced the plan for these new cities as part of a "quantum leap" plan that also includes flying cars. This seems like a clear nod to the "accelerationism" movement sweeping certain parts of tech.
Trump's inclusion of Network State ideas in his official campaign platform raises many questions: Who will live in these cities? How will they be governed? Who will profit most from their creation? How will they deal with fierce, bipartisan community resistance like that which derailed California Forever? Where is this "American frontier" of which Trump speaks? How did this strange and dystopian cult idea make its way into Trump's campaign platform?
Further reading:
Emily Shugerman, formerly of the Daily Beast, did a deep dive on Pronomos Capital and its plans for "colonies of Tech Bros":
Power Trip
Emily Shugerman of the Daily Beast
The first piece in my New Republic series on the Network State explained the basic concepts. You can read the full series on my author page.
Gil Duran
This Foreign Policy piece examines how Próspera has become a nightmare for Honduras:
Guillaume Long, Alexander Main
And here's an official dashboard Network State projects around the world!
