President Donald Trump wants to make Ronald Reagan’s long-ridiculed Star Wars missile defense program from the 1980s a reality. And he insists new tech can finally make it happen.
Trump gave a rambling speech to Congress Tuesday night that included the kinds of dishonest nonsense the fascist president has long been known for. But as the most powerful person in the country, Trump has the power to make things happen. And he wants to create a missile defense system for the U.S. called the “Golden Dome for America,” previously known as the “Iron Dome for America.”
“As Commander-in-Chief, my focus is on building the most powerful military of the future. As a first step, I am asking Congress to fund a state-of-the-art Golden Dome Missile Defense Shield to protect our homeland, all made in the USA,” Trump said.
Trump went on to invoke the name of Ronald Reagan, clearly one of Trump’s favorite presidents, especially since the current president seems perpetually stuck in a 1980s mindset.
“Ronald Reagan wanted to do it long ago, but the technology just wasn’t there, not even close,” Trump continued. “But now we have the technology. It’s incredible, actually. And other places that have it, Israel has it. Other places have it. And the United States should have it, too.”
Trump kicked off his pursuit of Reagan’s Star Wars on Jan. 27 when he issued an executive order calling for the creation of a “next-generation missile defense shield.”
“President Ronald Reagan endeavored to build an effective defense against nuclear attacks, and while this program resulted in many technological advances, it was canceled before its goal could be realized,” the executive order said.
Initially, Trump’s program was supposed to be called the Iron Dome for America, copying the name of the ground-based system from Israel, but that name is trademarked by an Israeli company, so it makes sense the gold-obsessed president would choose a new name with a gold theme.
Reagan’s Star Wars, officially known as the Strategic Defense Initiative, was announced in 1983 as a space-based missile interceptor program and never properly got off the ground. At the time, detractors likened the system to something like attempting to shoot a bullet with another bullet. The tech simply wasn’t advanced enough, and it required the militarization of space, something that was previously prohibited by international treaties. Trump’s executive order from January specifically calls out the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, from which the U.S. withdrew in 2002.
The general idea is to protect the U.S. from missiles, though it’s not clear who would be firing at Americans anymore, our old allies or our new ones? And the problem Trump now faces is making a missile defense shield that covers the entire United States. Israel’s Iron Dome system obviously protects a much smaller area from short-range rockets. Does Trump expect rocket attacks from Canada or Mexico soon? Such a question would’ve been absurd in any other era.
And unfortunately for Trump, it’s not clear whether the tech really is there for a land mass so vast. The executive order doesn’t lay out specifics about how the Golden Dome would be constructed. Theoretically, if you threw enough money at agencies like the Missile Defense Agency and the U.S. Space Force (which already has systems for tracking missiles) and any number of private contractors, you could come up with a system. But Trump keeps insisting he’s trying to cut government spending.
Which brings you to the problem that Congress is supposed to fund projects like this. And while Trump said he wants Congress to find the money for this project, it’s not clear why the House and Senate would ever agree to such a large new expense. Trump has asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to find about $50 billion in cuts that can be reallocated for projects like the Golden Dome, but that’s not how any of this is supposed to work. Illegality isn’t going to stop Trump, obviously. The Trump White House has already been ignoring direct court orders and the courts are powerless to do anything about it. So if Trump can’t get Congress to fund it, he clearly has other options, even if they’re not entirely legal.
Will Trump pull off a shiny new missile defense shield? Who knows? But the challenges are obviously much larger than just scaling up Israel’s Iron Dome and it’s not entirely clear why the U.S. would need such a system. Everything seems up in the air at the moment, including who might be considered America’s “allies.” Trump has slapped tariffs on Canada and Mexico, while threatening to hit Europe next. All there are reports the Trump regime plans to drop sanctions against Russia while imposing much smaller tariffs on China.
It’s a brand new world out there for Americans and there’s no telling what tomorrow might bring, let alone the next year. The U.S. could have a new missile defense system funded entirely by programs cut by Secretary Hegseth. And the U.S. could quite literally go to war with allies like Canada, Mexico, Greenland, and Panama. There’s no telling at this point. And Americans should be prepared for anything.
