Free Market Capitalism Is Worth Fighting for

Let free people think for themselves, use their God-given talents to come up with Earth-shattering ideas that can change the course of the economy.

AP/Evan Vucci
President Trump at the Saudi Investment Forum with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the Kennedy Center, November 19, 2025. AP/Evan Vucci

Free market capitalism is the best path to prosperity. For many years, I hosted a TV show where that was always the opening line.

Of course, it reflected my view of how best individuals and nations could prosper. And I have served two presidents who fortunately agree with this point of view.

Let free people think for themselves, use their God-given talents to come up with Earth-shattering ideas that can change the course of the economy. We’ve seen it happen, several times over in our lifetime.

Here’s one: Nvidia and Microsoft are now each individually larger by market cap than any other national stock market in the world except Japan. Apple’s market value is about equal to Communist China.

Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations” is one of the Bibles of the free market capitalist movement.

On the 250th anniversary of America’s founding, it’s important to note that many of our Founding Fathers communicated with Adam Smith, and were deeply influenced by his ideas.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is not a bad place to start.

And our freedom comes from our creator, not government. Another good place to start.

And it’s also a good reminder that Adam Smith’s book “The Theory of Moral Sentiments,” which preceded “The Wealth of Nations,” was, if I may oversimplify, about playing by the rules and abiding by the laws of a nation.

And I’m not going to draw on lots and lots of numbers right now, but I am going to say that democratic capitalism always produces more than democratic socialism.

Certainly communism, where the godless state ran everything, was an abject Soviet failure.

I know that it’s fashionable in some of these left-wing blue states and cities where Mamdani-ism is kicking up at New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Seattle. But it won’t work.

Price controls, rent freeze, Soviet-style grocery stores, free everything, high confiscatory tax burdens, it won’t work. Incentives matter, let’s not forget that. 

My friends at the Committee to Unleash Prosperity periodically run economic comparisons of the success of red states and the failure of blue states.

Take New York and New Jersey, where over the last 10 or so years, their left-wing statist policies have seen nearly 3 million people abandon those states.

And where cumulatively have lost about $700 billion of income — and rising.

Yet here comes President Trump riffing at the Kennedy Center today about his supply-side tax cuts, deregulation, “drill baby drill,” and reciprocal trade.

He didn’t exactly say it, but what he was talking about was the idea that free-market capitalism is the best path to prosperity.

This on a day when the Atlanta Federal Reserve marked up its third-quarter gross domestic product increase to 4.2 percent, including a business boom and a lower trade deficit.

Mr. Trump is not ideologically inclined, but as a former businessman, he knows what makes the economy tick.

As the Wall Street Journal’s James Freeman put it, let Americans produce more goods.

Let the government produce less money.

That’ll get us to virtually unlimited growth and affordability.

Mr. Trump is a common-sense capitalist. And he may well be raising $20 trillion of new investment money pouring into America, bolstering our currency, reducing our inflation, and balancing our trade.

America is the hottest place in the world right now. And no matter how hard they try, Democrats are not going to sabotage Mr. Trump’s version of free-market capitalism and a “peace through strength” foreign policy.

Free market capitalism is worth fighting for.

From Mr. Kudlow’s broadcast on Fox Business Network.


The New York Sun

© 2025 The New York Sun Company, LLC. All rights reserved.

Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. The material on this site is protected by copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used.

The New York Sun

Sign in or  create a free account

or
By continuing you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use