Trump to announce $25B funding for Golden Dome project

Politico

20-05-2025

President Donald Trump will announce $25 billion for his 'Golden Dome' defense project Tuesday afternoon, according to a White House official, a fraction of the amount it would eventually cost to build the ambitious national missile system he's demanded.
The announcement, which Trump is expected to make in the Oval Office alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, will seek to impose some structure on an idea still very much in the early stages — an air defense bubble of sensors, satellites and missile batteries over the entire U.S. The funding, currently embedded in Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' was discussed this morning during the president's meeting with House Republicans, said the official, granted anonymity to speak about the announcement.
The $25 billion initial investment matches the amount requested by the White House in the megabill, which has yet to make it through Congress. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that a national ballistic and cruise missile defense system would cost more than $500 billion over the next two decades.
Trump is expected to announce that Gen. Michael Guetlein, Space Force's vice chief of space operations, will lead the project, according to a defense official, the White House official and a person familiar with the matter.
The president signed an executive order in January that initiated the defense system. He called for a multi-layered homeland defense program that would stitch together existing Pentagon programs as well as new, developmental technologies such as space-based sensors and weapons.
The administration's investment in Golden Dome comes amid concerns from the intelligence community about missile threats to the U.S. The Defense Intelligence Agency last week said that China and Russia are developing new hypersonic missiles built to evade traditional air defense. They could grow their arsenals to 5,000 land attack cruise missiles by 2035, officials said, which could strike large portions of the continental U.S.
Democrats have expressed concern about the effectiveness of the costly defense shield. The U.S. already has 44 missile interceptors spread out across California and Alaska, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) said Thursday at POLITICO's Security Summit. 'I would love to be able to build a system that actually worked 100 percent of the time,' he said. 'To build a system over the entire country would be incredibly hard and we're not sure it's going to work.'
Previous administrations have considered putting more missile interceptors on the East Coast. But officials have repeatedly scuttled the idea given the cost and length of time it would take to complete the project.
The administration argues this effort is different. 'Golden Dome is not one big umbrella we buy that protects the homeland from a number of threats,' Space Force chief Gen. Chance Saltzman said Monday at a Council on Foreign Relations event.
Many of the sensors and systems for the effort already exist, he said, but need to be connected by a software backbone.
'What Golden Dome is doing is allowing us to do a more holistic mission analysis,' Saltzman said. 'Here are the gaps, where are the issues? Where can we be more credible in our defense of the homeland?''