President Donald Trump is opening up new frontiers for wealth creation around the world. How so? By advancing the supply side.
A half-century ago, supply-side economics burst onto the national stage thanks to the energy and charisma of former Republican New York Rep. Jack Kemp. Back then, in a time of high inflation and slow growth, Kemp argued that tax-rate reductions would increase the supply of goods, as producers were incentivized to make more. So prices would be lowered as new jobs and profits were created.
Kemp sold the supply-side concept to Ronald Reagan, who won the presidency in 1980, and enacted two epic tax cuts, in 1981 and 1986. The result was a non-inflationary economic boom.
Yet Kemp had an even broader vision of growth than just tax-rate reductions. In his 1979 book, ”An American Renaissance” he argued that oil and gas production was being crimped by federal price controls. Kemp argued that price decontrol would lead to more production. And that’s what happened. In the 1980s, Reagan, Kemp’s supply-side soulmate, lifted controls and producers responded by increasing supply. Today, the U.S. is a substantial oil and gas exporter.
Yet there’s still the matter of advancing the supply-side, of fully unleashing production. President Donald Trump pledges to do exactly that, as part of his plan for American energy dominance. Kemp, who died in 2009, would applaud.
You see, the Kemp-Reagan-Trump vision is about expanding supply; creating abundance. And now the 47th president is looking to the world. Let’s consider three examples:
Greenland: Nobody knows how much mineral and energy wealth awaits under all that ice, because Malthusian restrictions have kept people from looking. Yet estimates show Greenland’s potential value in the trillions, and that got Trump’s attention. It’s hard to know if the U.S. will ever gain actual possession of Greenland, and yet in response to Trump’s push, Greenland is newly welcoming to American investors, including drillers and diggers. So more future supply is assured, and that’s good news for Americans.
Canada: Trump has talked often about making Canada the 51st state, and top officials take him seriously. Still, we can’t know the future. Yet already, Pierre Poilevre, likely the next leader of Canada, has staked out a pro-energy, pro-growth platform. With Trump’s continued prodding, Canada, too, will be walking on the supply side.
Gaza: Trump’s idea of moving the Gazans out of the war zone shocked the establishment. And yet the relocation of those 2 million people can be seen, not only as humanitarian imperative, not only as necessary for Israel’s security, but also as a supply-side play, opening up real estate on the Mediterranean. As former Trump diplomat—and always son-in-law—Jared Kushner said last year, “Gaza’s waterfront property, it could be very valuable.”
Right now, the 141 square miles of Gaza have negative value. The most lethal danger, of course, is the presence of Hamas, which terrorizes Arabs as well as Jews. And yet other dangers lurk. A 2024 report from the United Nations Environment Programme concluded of the bombed-out zone, the “rubble can contain harmful substances like asbestos, heavy metals, fire contaminants, unexploded ordnance, and hazardous chemicals.”
Yet Gaza has location, location, location. If Hamas went away, the other toxins could be cleaned up, and a whole new supply of waterside vistas created. Indeed, the pacification of Gaza would increase valuations across the Middle East, as war fears eased and investor confidence increased.
But could relocation really happen? The established experts say no, and yet they have no plausible plan for Gaza—and so maybe their expertise isn’t worth too much.
Instead, we need a burst of new thinking. The kind of imagination that, a half century ago, Jack Kemp supplied.
James P. Pinkerton, a former White House domestic policy aide to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, is a former Fox News contributor.
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