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With the world struggling to get oil supplies moving from the Middle East, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich raised eyebrows with a social media post highlighting a radical idea: Use nuclear bombs to cut a new channel<\/a> along a route that would avoid Iranian threats in the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Gingrich\u2019s March 15, 2026, post<\/a> linked to an article<\/a> that labeled itself as satire<\/a>. Gingrich has not clarified whether his endorsement was serious. But he is old enough to remember<\/a> when ideas like this were not only taken seriously but actually pursued by the U.S. and Soviet governments.<\/p>\n As I discuss in my book, Deep Cut: Science, Power, and the Unbuilt Interoceanic Canal<\/em><\/a>, the U.S. version of this project ended in 1977. At the time, Gingrich was launching his political career<\/a> after working as a history and environmental studies professor<\/a>.<\/p>\n