In recent years, a cadre of tech billionaires have become obsessed with a deeply unconventional idea: the creation of new, privately owned cities. Dubbed the “Freedom Cities” movement, backers say they’d like to create new special development zones in the U.S. that would allow such cities to be built. In these zones, private investors could write their own laws and set up their own governance structures. According to this project’s backers, such communities would be corporately controlled and wouldn’t involve a traditional bureaucracy. Of course, to do all this, developers will need a lot of land.
The “Freedom City” movement found its legislative champion in the form of Mike Lee, a deeply out-of-touch, politically unhinged Senator from Utah. In recent months, Lee introduced a provision to Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” that would have brought tech billionaires’ dream one step closer to reality: Lee’s bill text would have offered up 1.2 million acres of federal land to be sold off by the Bureau of Land Management and then developed for the purposes of “affordable housing” and other private interests. Much of that land, some of which sits adjacent to some of the nation’s most popular national parks, would have been sourced from 11 Western states.
Perhaps aware of how unpopular his proposals were, Lee was attempting to cram through the policy without any sort of public comment. American Progress notes that Lee’s bill required “some consultation with local government, governors, and Tribes” but otherwise offered “no opportunity for public input.”
However, Lee’s effort has officially floundered. Over the weekend, the Senator pulled his provision from the Trump megabill due to ongoing opposition within Congress—including from conservative lawmakers in Western states. Those lawmakers, including Republicans from Montana, Idaho, Washington, California, and Oregon, were planning to torpedo Trump’s whole bill if Lee’s provision remained inside of it. “We cannot accept the sale of federal lands that Sen. Lee seeks,” the legislators wrote in a letter sent last week. Rather than be the reason that Trump’s omnibus legislation floundered, Lee put his tail between his legs and withdrew the provision on Saturday.
“Over the past several weeks, I’ve spent a lot of time listening to members of the community, local leaders and stakeholders across the country,” Lee wrote on X on Saturday. “While there has been a tremendous amount of misinformation — and in some cases, outright lies — about my bill, many people brought forward sincere concerns.”
For the moment, millions of Americans can breath a collective sigh of relief. The National Parks Conservation Association has said that the bill, had it gone through, would have opened up federal lands directly adjacent to national parks for development—a policy that could have resulted in luxury housing or hotels being built right next to iconic vistas like Zion National Park.
Almost nobody wanted this thing to happen. In addition to concerns from Lee’s fellow lawmakers, a recent poll by Colorado College found that, of several thousand people surveyed who live in Western states, a vast majority of them support protections for public lands, and are more interested in conservation efforts than they are in development. Indeed, even Trump voters have come out to decry the proposal. “Strong majorities of Western voters – including self-identified ‘MAGA’ voters – support policies that focus on the protection and conservation of public lands and oppose policies that would open public lands up to drilling, mining, or other development,” the pollsters found.
Viral MAGA influencers—many of whom happen to live in rural communities—had been openly badmouthing Lee’s plan to privatize public lands. Indeed, one Trump-voting hunter and gun rights YouTuber, Cameron Hanes, has been posting long, detailed videos slamming Lee’s bill. “It’s all BS what he says,” Hanes says in one video, claiming that Lee has been spreading “misinformation” about who is criticizing the bill. Hanes notes that it’s “actually both sides of the aisle—it’s left and right” that hate the proposal. Hanes additionally urged his followers to “please call [Congress] and make us impossible to ignore.” He added: “The collective voice of the average American is our only hope.”
It isn’t hard to see why people like Hanes were so critical of Lee’s proposal, as American Progress has noted that “well-loved recreation spots, popular areas for hunting and fishing, prime wildlife habitat, and even sacred or historic sites” could have potentially been privatized under the bill.
Despite aggressive disinterest from a majority of Americans, the lobby to create tech billionaires’ network of libertarian dystopias is still in place, and efforts to deregulate and ultimately develop public lands are still ongoing. That’s concerning, given this is clearly a government that doesn’t care much for the environment. Indeed, the Trump administration recently opened up tens of millions of acres in national forests to potential logging. It just goes to show, you can’t keep a bad idea down (as long as the idea belongs to a billionaire).
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