How Trump, Musk and Bezos could preserve humanity from an asteroid strike

President Trump, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have accomplished more in one lifetime than most people could in 100 lifetimes — especially Trump.

Last month, Politico global editor-in-chief John F. Harris called Trump the “greatest American figure of his era.” I would add to that declaration by further suggesting that Trump is a once-in-a-century leader who will go down in history as our greatest president.

While many will howl in protest at such a prediction, a growing number of people believe it to be true. One of the main reasons is Trump’s decades of real-world business experience and massive success.

To quote Harris again, Trump “is someone with an ability to perceive opportunities that most politicians do not and forge powerful, sustained connections with large swaths of people in ways that no contemporary can match. In other words: He is a force of history.” Indeed.

But instead of just claiming his place in history, what if Trump were able to save the history of our future? A mission relatively easy to accomplish, most especially for someone with Trump’s business and construction experience.

For the last couple of weeks, there have been media reports about an asteroid named Y4, a potential Earth-impacting asteroid that was not detected until Dec. 27, 2024. This asteroid, if it were to hit Earth, would result in an explosion 100 times greater than a modern nuclear warhead.

While its chances of hitting the earth are small, they are still very real. If Y4 did collide with our planet, it would do so on Dec. 22, 2032. At the moment, it is rated the highest risk of an asteroid collision ever recorded by the European Space Agency.

That said, I guarantee that almost every politician or staffer reading this in Washington, D.C. is now rolling their eyes. Nobody wants to take seriously the odds of a killer asteroid striking the Earth. An asteroid hitting the planet and killing a few million people — or all of humanity — is the stuff of cheesy science fiction movies.

Except it is science fact, and many believe we are overdue for another direct hit. Some reports estimate that as many as 60 percent of “Earth-killer” asteroids remain undetected, which equates to thousands of asteroids. In July 2023, a “hotel-sized” asteroid zoomed past the Earth totally undetected just about a quarter of the distance from the Earth to the Moon. In fact, it was not “discovered” until two days after it came within an astronomical hair of hitting our planet.

“What’s the big deal” you might be asking yourself. How much damage can a hotel-sized rock do to our planet? Well, on June 30, 1908, an asteroid just 130-feet across exploded over Siberia with the estimated force of 1,000 Hiroshima bombs. It incinerated more than 100 square kilometers and flattened over 2,000. In comparison, all of Manhattan is approximately 59 square kilometers.

The Y4 asteroid is more than twice the size of that asteroid.

In just the last decade, there have been multiple “Earth-killer” asteroids that have zipped between the Earth and the moon totally undetected. If one were to hit now, it would obviously render moot all of our arguments regarding sovereign borders, DEI, tariffs, crime, failing universities, corrupt teachers’ unions and every other issue.

At the moment, humanity has all of its eggs in the planet Earth basket, including all of our people and our very history. This is something Musk and others have been warning about for years. The literal survival of our species is at stake. We need to get a large representation of humanity — along with our data and our history — permanently off-planet.

Whether an asteroid or comet hit, a nuclear war or some evil scientist working on humanity-killing viruses, the human species remains at risk of complete annihilation if confined to planet Earth. But it does not have to be so.

Musk has talked about one day colonizing Mars. Although that is an admirable and logical goal, it is still one complicated by the vast distance, the limited launch windows, the massive financial needs and the increased risk of crew exposure to radiation during the approximately nine-month journey.

Some believe we need the backup basket for humanity — immediately. If so, the answer is our own Moon. Several years ago, I wrote a hopefully fun and informative novel titled “The Dawn of a Nazi Moon.” Within the book, I went into great detail on how the massive lava tubes deep under the lunar surface could serve as the protected construction sites for a lunar city or cities.

And since we are talking about a construction project, we come right back to Trump. Be it Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, the many buildings he has put up around the world or a complex deep within the lunar surface, this is the kind of larger-than-life project in which Trump has always shined.

And who better to advise the president on this literally humanity-saving project than Musk, Bezos and their respective SpaceX and Blue Origin teams? A match made in the Heavens.

This issue, and this risk to humanity, dwarfs all our earthly problems. The clock is ticking.

Douglas MacKinnon is a former White House and Pentagon official.