By: David Geiger
Edited by: Dave Price

A new presidential term started off this week with an emphasis on President Trump’s America First policy. A part of that is a push to bring innovation and manufacturing back to America.
RELATED: Domestic production can be a bipartisan effort. Earlier this month, Reuters reported the Biden Administration blocked a U.S. Steel merger with Nippon Steel. The new Trump Administration also vowed to kill the effort.
While a new administration is a time of uncertainty, it can also be a time for optimism. American entrepreneur and venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale co-founded Palantir Technologies and serves as the managing partner at the technology investment firm 8VC. He is excited for what is to come.
"The MAGA movement is dialectic,” Lonsdale said.
(In case you aren’t familiar with “dialectic,” dictionary.com defines it as, “the art of investigating or discussing the truth of opinions.”)
Lonsdale continued, “On one hand ‘Make America Great Again’ implies implicitly there are a lot of problems. A lot of things that need to be fixed. And it also implies to me in a way that this is a place that has a lot of things we should be proud of. This is a really great country and can be a great country once we fix these things."
He feels good about the country’s ability to improve. “What I'm really optimistic about is there's no problem we're facing, whether it's in education, whether it's in our healthcare costs, whatever we're facing, we don't have an answer to. So, with the right leadership I think we're going to get there."
RELATED: On his first day in office, Time Magazine reports President Trump issued 26 executive orders, 12 memoranda, and 4 proclamations.
Lonsdale said it may be overwhelming for people during the first couple of weeks of the Trump Administration, but he is excited to see change.
Using an example from World War II, he said as America advanced in innovation, it excelled in production. It built many more ships than could be destroyed. “Now, it’s the opposite today unfortunately. It’s the opposite and even more extreme. In China, it has 230 times the shipbuilding capacity. This is insane, right?”
Lonsdale said they have been asking for years what to do to ramp up production. He is learning from Elon Musk with Tesla and SpaceX about advanced manufacturing and its challenges as his business ventures try to teach the U.S. Navy how to use artificial intelligence.
“We’re going to build 500 autonomous weaponized vessels in Austin, Texas this year,” Lonsdale said. “You can build them on the lake and move them to Galveston.”
RELATED: Read 8VC partner Saronic’s 2023 statement on funding and push to build a large fleet of autonomous vessels to outpace Chinese production.
This relates back to a shift in the U.S. political leadership, Lonsdale explained. Permits in Texas were much more reasonable, while places like California had a much more restricted process.
“Government matters a lot. And when I say government, it’s the regulatory state. Are you in a place where you’re cutting back on regulations and where you’re making sure they’re not getting in the way?” he asked.
“When you show up, does the mayor, does the governor show up and say, ‘How can I help you? How can we make sure that you’re successful?’”
This is where Lonsdale is optimistic about the MAGA movement and his mentor Elon Musk’s involvement with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
“There’s going to be a huge, huge conflict.” Lonsdale said, hopeful of bureaucracy cuts. “They are going to have to fight a war against the ones that are obstructionists and are slow.”
RELATED: Here’s an example from CBS News of ways DOGE would target what it calls government inefficiency: the cost of the U.S. penny.
Ultimately, Lonsdale claimed the government is not equipped or nimble enough to keep up with the speed and advancements in innovation. As it stands, putting rules and regulations in place, he worries, could hinder U.S. dominance or push production outside of the U.S.
“I’ll tell you what happens. I just end up having to invest a bunch into lawyers, thought leaders, and a bunch of people talking to these regulators,” Lonsdale said.
“They’ll listen to me, and I’ll be fine. And some other genius kid will get smashed by the regulators in the world.”
Joe Lonsdale was a keynote speaker at the 18th Annual Land Investment Expo in Des Moines, Iowa. For more information on the 2026 Land Investment Expo, click here.