Trump outlines 3-year timeline, $175B price tag on ‘Golden Dome’
by Ellen Mitchell - 05/20/25 4:35 PM ET
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President Trump on Tuesday announced that his ambitious, multibillion-dollar Golden Dome missile defense shield would only cost $175 billion to build and be “fully operational” in less than three years, defying earlier predictions for its price tag and timeline to field.
Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump said the U.S. had officially selected the architecture for Golden Dome, an effort which will be led by Vice Chief of Space Operations Space Force Gen. Michael Guetlein.
The president also declared it would cost just $175 billion, far below previous estimates to develop, build and field the technology needed for system. He also said it would be completed before his second term ends, an astounding pace.
“This design for the Golden Dome will integrate with our existing defense capabilities and should be fully operational before the end of my term. So we’ll have it done in about three years,” Trump said. “Once fully constructed, Golden Dome will be capable of intercepting missiles even if they are launched from other sides of the world, and even if they are launched from space, and we will have the best system ever built.”
Trump also declared that Canada will be included in the effort.
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“Canada has called us and they want to be a part of it. So we’ll be talking to them, they want to have protection also,” he said.
Golden Dome, first ordered by Trump in January, is poised to receive $25 billion to jump-start the purported missile defense system that would create a network of satellites to detect, track and potentially intercept incoming ballistic missiles.
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But the $25 billion, part of the GOP’s reconciliation bill, is just the tip of the iceberg in funding the system, which is estimated to cost the U.S. more than $500 billion over 20 years to develop, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
The program’s high price tag and advanced technology — much of which has yet to be developed or fielded — has already drawn political scrutiny and questions as to how it will be funded moving forward.
What’s more, Democratic lawmakers have raised concerns around the possibility that billionaire and Trump advisor Elon Musk could receive Golden Dome contracts via his company SpaceX, an outcome that would appear to be a conflict of interest given his role in the Trump administration.
Trump’s inspiration for Golden Dome stems from Israel’s Iron Dome, a system the small country uses to shoot down short-range rockets and artillery fired from up to 43 miles away.
“We don’t have a dome ourselves. We’re going to have the greatest dome ever,” Trump said in December 2023 while on the campaign trail, later saying he would “build an Iron Dome over our country.”
But Trump’s Golden Dome would need a far more extensive system as Washington’s potential threats don’t come from short-range missiles, instead coming from intercontinental ballistic missiles fired from countries such as Russia, China, Iran or North Korea.
A system to protect against those threats would require a massive number of surveillance satellites and attack satellites to detect and shoot down incoming missiles.
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