While all eyes are focused on tariffs, deportees, taxes, and the stock market of course, President Donald J. Trump's cabinet choice currently positioned to emerge as the leading member of Trump's cabinet and the MVP of the Trump Administration's Golden Age of Energy is Secretary of Energy Chris Wright.
Wright is already doing an exemplary job leading the revival of America's great asset, oil, to "Make America Great Again." By enabling lower prices, massive energy exports, and making the US not just energy-secure but energy-dominant, both he and Trump can be assured of success.
However, the greatest leap to global preeminence for the United States, and as a stunning legacy for Trump and Wright, will happen if and when they succeed in catapulting America ahead of China in the newest global race for the only energy that is clean, inexpensive, and limitless: nuclear fusion energy.
It is a resource already quickly being developed by China and by a few American companies and entrepreneurs, including Sam Altman.
Nuclear fusion energy will be sorely needed for artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing data centers, as well as for consumer and military needs, such as nuclear submarines and aircraft.
Presently, with the exponentiating growth of AI, the US is barreling toward an electricity crisis. America's aging and outdated electric grids, especially at the height of the summer and winter, have been increasingly plagued by brownouts and blackouts, and can hardly keep up just with the needs of consumers, let alone the military. When the AI tech revolution goes into high gear, this problem will only get worse.
Many businesses in the US are increasingly building their own electricity production units, a trend is driven by several factors, including rising electricity demand, the need for reliable power and cost saving.
The amount of energy needed just to keep cooling cloud storage systems – before the expected explosion of AI -- is simply not sustainable with current production. Nuclear fission energy, for which advanced reactors are dependent upon 20% uranium enrichment, is also not recommended. Uranium is possessed in abundance by US adversaries such as Russia and China. The leader of the free world, the United States, if it is to retain its global preeminence, cannot grow its energy supply, or much of anything for that matter, by relying on countries that would probably like to destroy it.
Currently, China is reportedly investing at least $1.5 billion annually in developing nuclear fusion energy -- compared to a combined "$900 million in total annual public funding for the rest of the world." Currently, the US stands in danger of China leaving the US in the inexpensive and limitless nuclear fusion energy dust. If the US wishes to maintain global leadership this century, that disparity is unacceptable.
The best news is that nuclear fusion energy, as opposed to the nuclear fission energy currently prevalent, does not need enriched uranium. What does nuclear fusion energy need? Seawater. How is that for a continent surrounded by two oceans?
Middle Eastern countries with generous sovereign wealth funds have already offered to invest exorbitantly in rebuilding the American economy. Any country that would rather be aligned with the US than with China would doubtless be happy to invest in a Trump Manhattan Project for Nuclear Fusion Energy, and could be among the first beneficiaries of it for their public.
Like it or not, there is only one solution for America if it wishes to retain its global leadership: nuclear fusion energy.
Wright could easily start assembling a Trump Manhattan Project for Nuclear Fusion Energy this week. If he did, he would no doubt find himself catapulted from stardom to superstardom, while at the same time serving his country, its global leadership and its president.
Lawrence Kadish serves on the Board of Governors of Gatestone Institute.
