Trump says $175 Billion. The CBO says $542 billion. Think much higher. 
The lead image is from the Defense Intelligence Agency report Golden Dome for America: Current and Future Missile Threats to the U.S. Homeland
Trump Says Golden Dome Will Be Operational in Three Years
In yet another fantasyland projection Trump Says Golden Dome Will Be Operational in Three Years
President Donald Trump vowed that a “Golden Dome” missile-defense shield would be “fully operational” by the end of his term, and offer the US protection from an array of threats — even though some of the technology remains unproven.
Trump’s pledge is an ambitious goal given that much of the technology around the planned system remains unproven, especially plans for space-based interceptors to knock out incoming ballistic missiles. Congress is seeking $25 billion to begin work on the system and Trump said it could cost $175 billion overall.
That conflicts with an estimate from the Congressional Budget Office, which has projected that the US might have to spend as much as $542 billion over 20 years to develop and launch those interceptors. Even that could be a low estimate compared to other projections that it could require investments of nearly $1 trillion.
Some experts have questioned whether a system of interceptors capable of destroying even small numbers of intercontinental ballistic missiles would be possible at all within the next couple of decades. Defending against a barrage from adversaries such as Russia or China is considered even more challenging.
“In our view, despite some high profile comments to the contrary, the capabilities of the current US systems are low and will likely remain low for the next 15 years,” according to a February report from the American Physical Society. The report found that many problems in developing such a system “are likely to remain unsolved during, and probably beyond, the 15-year time horizon.”
Details of the proposal aren’t clear but the Pentagon earlier developed draft plans for the air and missile defense system in response to Trump’s Jan. 27 executive order calling for its creation. The idea has garnered intense interest from defense companies given the billions of dollars that must be spent to develop it.
Some experts have said a Golden Dome system could provoke a new arms race with countries such as Russia or China, which might shift their focus to develop systems that could avoid the US interceptors.
Golden Dome by Executive Order
There is no funding for this program. It cannot be done by executive order.
But one thing we have learned over many decades is no government program ever costs as little as preliminary estimates.
Golden Dome Announcement
Lockheed Martin Is Ready
Who Thought of This?
What About Canada?
Let’s fund it all ourselves because Canada is a security threat to the US.
Rumsfeld Flashback
In 2003 Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said the war in Iraq would cost 3.9 Billion.
In 2014 I noted Defense Dept. to Request $30-40 Billion a Year to Fight ISIS; History Lessons
Anyone recall how the war in Iraq would pay for itself? That was the US Defense Department estimate in 2003.
Now some $3 trillion later (add in veterans’ benefits, depreciation of equipment, humanitarian aid, covert action, and paying for the military efforts of our coalition ‘partners’ and the Total Cost of Iraq, Afghan Wars is $4-6 Trillion.
That was the 2014 cost. The US did not withdraw its last troops from Afghanistan until August 30, 2021. And most Republicans wanted to stay.
Meanwhile Back in the Real World
The foot in the door cost of the Golden Dome is supposedly $175 Billion.
The foot in the Mideast door was $3.9 billion with a total cost of $4-6 trillion by 2014.
Please note Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” Would Increase the Deficit by $4.8 Trillion
Penn Wharton updated their budget analysis of the House bill as it now stands.
Q: Does that $4.8 Trillion include anything for the Golden Dome?
A: No
Then tack on another $1 trillion over the next 10 years if we start marching down this path.
Ultimately, expect to spend many trillions of dollars on this.
It has been said we will never go to war with China because China will not lend us the money to do so.
A wet dream for the oligarchs in charge.
[1] A first strike system, weaponizing space.
Another jar head concept about how a first-strike nuclear exchange is winnable.
[2] Another blow to global security, after retreating from the ABM and INF and installing missile sites in Romania and Poland and plans to station Dark Eagle hypersonic INF missiles in Germany and Ukraine.
[3] The technology actually does not exist, and the US is more vulnerable than people think. The Russians already have unlimited range nuclear cruise missiles, a dead hand system to make sure even the oligarch bunkers are taken out after nuclear Armageddon, and two hypersonic delivery vehicle platforms that can come in over the South Pole.
The Israeli iron dome supplemented by Patriots and THADD did not manage to keep Iran from hitting the world’s best defended air base in Israel; didn’t even stop Houthi missiles; did not protect Saudi refineries; scored a big zero against incoming Russian Kinzhal and Zircon. The US could not gain air supremacy over the Houthi nor keep their fleet safe in the Red Sea. American Air Defense is much less capable than it’s billed.
[4] The US has always been the stalwart blocking nuclear disarmament and is the only party that refuses to adopt a sole purpose or no first strike doctrine. The US is a threat to global security & stability.
Satellites are essential to defend the country.
Satellites are sitting duck in the sky.
Another trillions to defend the satellites.
Does this mean the China tariffs are going away? Because the only way to build that magical golden dome is with rare earths and other components from China. Unless the robots are going to build it all in which case it should be virtually free no?
Can’t wait to see robots mining rare earths, refining rare earth, distributing rare earths, building with rare earths, etc while we all sit back relax and collect social security.
What could go wrong?
Great name for a rock group – The Rare Earths.
Rock or Heavy Metal?
Already taken. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare_Earth_(band)
Shah la ..la la la la live for today …
No, that was the Grass Roots.
Dumb picture showing all those distant ICBMs traveling toward the US! So much time to aim those space lasers.
How about several dozen launched from 12 miles off of all the coasts?
Try and down those, you trillion dollar dome.
Good thing that the batman character arch criminal foes won’t think of the ~ 2 dozen most critical electrical transformer substations.
Nothing can stop a hypersonic missile except a super hypersonic missile. Good luck with that!
Starting the arms race back up against Russia a few decades ago is what got us hypersonic missiles in the first place. Next up: near light speed missiles.
I’m not forgetting that Trump said just a couple months ago he was looking to cut defense spending.
Nothing will get us to a $50 trillion national debt faster than a black hole of a multi year Golden Dome boondoggle.
Hypersonic missiles maneuver and evade, and make it impossible to predict a trajectory or develop a firing solution — it’s not just speed.
Death merchant pump-and-dump.
Looks more like a massive defense spending patch to cover up the huge hole being blown in GDP by the crushing blow from the insane tariff policy!
Whatever it costs, the money NEEDS to be spent on a super-grid to save half of our electrical expenses and make renewables functional.
This gilded punchbowl thing is a clear boondoggle.
What’s chance a state, with many assets to lose, launches a nuclear attack on the US vs a non-state actor sending a nuclear bomb over in a shipping container?
Or just detonates a nuclear weapon on a freighter close to a US city?
The Ukraine was has shown expensive military solutions are obsolete.
I don’t think the next nuclear war will be any different.
Correct, multiple point rogue actions (AI, grid and internet) are a larger threat to our nation than anything else.
Of course with trump alienating our allies and continuing to insult Canada and threaten other sovereign nations, it is possible that the whole world turns on us.
I had friends coming over from Australia this summer and they cancelled their trip because of trumps aggression on Canada which is aligned with the Commonwealth.
Gas has gone up 35 cents in my market since the election because of trumps abuse of Canada through tariffs.
Back in Greece, the Athens citizens elected Cleonte. He had very appealing policies for them. But internationally he struck Athens Alies so harder that Sparta turned some against Athens.
50 million invaders at large in CONUS funded armed and coordinated by our enemies.
Golden dome forfuksake
more goblin nonsense intended to shield them from consequences of their evil behaviour
The story behind this story is that US nuclear modernization is in deep trouble, it’s behind schedule, and over budget. If it isn’t completed in time, US nuclear deterrence will become questionable and uncertain. Then, a missile defense system will become a matter of national survival if it can even be built in time.
if you think comprehensive missile defense can come faster than reviving/moderninzing existing nuke prgrams….
Sure, just like the wall he failed to build?
Believing in trump is more cult than anything else…
Perhaps we should be wondering if trump will use AI information against people that do not vote for his abusive political stances and intolerance?
Meanwhile – China continues to withhold rare earths from shipment to the U.S. Can not build the mission critical components without them.
You can bet that trump is investing in the companies he will deliver the gift profits to and nothing will ever get built. Similar to Regans spending fantasy that yielded vaporware galore.
Isn’t this simply Reagan’s “Star Wars” missle defense initiative 2.0? The “Star Wars” program faced alot of technical problems not to mention the financial cost. It was ultimately abandoned by Clinton.
Reagan’s Star Wars was the ultimate bluff, as the more senile Soviet premiers in the 1980s Brezhnev, Andropov, Chernenko actually believed it. By the time Gorby showed up, the USSR had already blown its wad.
It’ll go nowhere, just like Star Wars did.
Or we’ll give contractors billions of dollars to develop stuff that doesn’t work….
We’ve had technology that can make a Boeing 777-200ER disappear into thin air since 2014 – why are we even talking about missile defense?
To pump fabricated dollars into chosen political hands.
Not helping Americans one bit. More of his play war games fantasy. Impeach the lying fraud.
Re: “We’ll be completing the job Reagan started 40 years ago!”
Replace the word “job” by the word “scam”.
And replace the word “completing” with “continuing.”
Reagan was a life-long Democrat turned Republican who never lost his Democrat taste for big guv. Guess who else is a a life-long Democrat turned Republican who never lost his Democrat taste for big guv? He’s kinda golden colored…
They will spend a TRILLION dollars in a couple of years. And all we’ll get out of that would be some slick AI-generated demo video of the bogus “protective” dome.
What a scam to placate the MIC and his billionaire buddies. WE’RE BROKE! He’s determined to saddle our children and grand children with a collapsing economy.
Cost?
Trump apparently didn’t take geometry, trigonometry or physics. Useless MIC grift writ large.
Vlad can take out any city on the coasts with submarine-based hypersonics in less than 5 minutes.
But why would he. Those places are doing a masterful job destroying the country from within.
Oh, I forgot! It’s all about levitating the stock market.
not to mention Russia’s nuclear armed Poseidon underwater drone.
I like it. Way better spent on this than Stacey Abram’s DEI/environmental BS.
AI is purely an offensive play. Not defensive.
Big mistake to spend money on old defence methods—Drones– Pandemic infections electronic bombs will be used as they spare the infrastructure and only eliminate the people
Just like the old neutron bomb.
He probably thinks Israel’s Iron Dome works. lol
Iron Dome does work.
https://interestingengineering.com/military/iron-dome-engineering-explained
Against the toys Iran has? Yes, but real weapons? Not so much.
Iron Dome works sometimes (maybe 50%) vs. small home-made “bottle rockets”, but it’s out of its’ league vs. maneuvering ICBMs (formerly called “ballistic” missiles).
In the 10+ years it takes to build, your adversaries have simply developed ways to overcome the system. In addition the focus on the system diverts hearts and minds from peace making. Didn’t we hear all this from Ronnie, 40 years ago? The focus on Star Wars and deploying anti-missile systems in Eastern Europe surely was a contributor to the ongoing mistrust between Russia and the West. Anyway as we all know, just like Alcatraz, it is just a load of attention seeking.
The focus on Star Wars and the expanded spending by the US in the 80s on military helped accelerate the demise of the Soviet Union as they bankrupted their economy trying to keep up.
That said, the whole idea is absurd because there are countless other ways besides shooting ICBMs to deliver nukes or other things (bio weapons etc).
Socialism brought down the Soviet economy, not Ron, nor the pope.
So you think it was coincidence it happened during the greatest US military buildup since the 2nd world war?
In the 80s, we paid little attention to Reagan’s talk of Star Wars.
The cost was ridiculous, and the Cold War on its way out.
It was just an old politician’s dream.
I lived though the 80s (teen and early 20s). I remember the cold war being pretty alive back then. All you have to do is look at movies like War Games, half the James Bond movie plots, Rocky IV etc to realize it was still ‘very much on’.
The famous Able-Archer war games in 83 almost caused WWIII!
Exactly, it was still very much on the screen.
It didn’t actually. The Soviet Union collapsed on George Bush’s watch.
Nothing was built up. The Soviets were not afraid of hot air. Even Ron’s most ardent supporters knew that it was a bluff directed not at the USSR, but at his electorate. US foreign policy is actually domestic policy. All US presidents monger wars in the middle is their terms.
It was a poor attempt at communism not socialism. Really just an authoritarian form of government that simply did not benefit the masses so the masses did the least possible.
1). The USSR was actually totalitarianism, so you’re much too gracious saying it had anything to do with “socialism”.
2). Were you even born then? I went into the military in 1983 under the massive Regan military buildup, and we basically out spent the USSR and caused their demise by getting them into a military spending war they couldn’t couldn’t win.
3). Once the “cold war” was finally won, Bush “senior” oversaw the massive reduction in force, which saw the USAF retire about 1/2 of the associated fighters we had accumulated, and we continue to draw down those flying assets to this day.
4). My bottom line is that there’s no such thing as a “dome” or “Shield” as some missiles will always get through and do damage, and also that this program will ignore the threat from “cruise” missiles, which the Missile Defense Agency has failed to address for the past 20+ years, since it’s just too hard a nut to crack.
“it is just a load of attention seeking.”
It satisfies his mental illness perfectly. Doesn’t have to work, doesn’t actually have to be build just keep him in the news and make him popular with the MIC and if he can make some money from it that is a huge plus.
America wake up he has to go.
Nothing like keeping your friends Happy . . . More than likely be out of date by the time it is functional . . . wonder how much over budget it will be . . .
The US Treasury just shocked Americans with a $258B surplus — its 2nd biggest monthly surplus in history
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-treasury-just-shocked-americans-130700143.html
Yeah, the other one was under Biden. Meaningless.
The second quarter usually shows a surplus because people pay their tax bills in April.
Instead of Tariffs, all he has to do is increase the corporate income tax by 20%. Then watch the deficit shrink. Maybe get a surplus each month, instead of one.
Do away with the cap on social security, cut defense by 25% every year for the next three, limit personal wealth to $2B, confiscate the rest.
Hegseth is taking the Army on another dead end ride to Asia
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/hegseth-army/