Trump unveils $175B, three-year price tag for Golden Dome

President Donald Trump announced a $175 billion, three-year plan on Tuesday to build a massive new missile defense system, offering some of the most concrete details yet about his vision to protect the U.S.

“It will be capable of intercepting missiles launched from the other side of the world,” he said in an Oval Office announcement with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. “Even if they’re launched from space.”

Trump offered few additional details about the project, dubbed “Golden Dome.” POLITICO reported earlier Tuesday about the planned announcement and the first tranche of funding, $25 billion from Trump’s megabill currently winding its way through Congress.

Trump and the head of the Space Force, Gen. Chance Saltzman, suggested much of the work would involve building a software backbone to link current systems with new ones that track, and potentially shoot down, ballistic and cruise missiles.

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the U.S. would need to spend more than $500 billion over two decades to develop a truly comprehensive missile defense shield, so Trump’s three-year window is an ambitious one.

To fulfill the guideposts laid out by the president, Congress would need to come up with $150 billion more over the next two years and the administration would have to determine how to quickly spend that large sum.

Trump, at the announcement, named Gen. Michael Guetlein, the Space Force’s vice chief of space operations, to lead the project.

“This design for the Golden Dome will integrate with our existing defense capabilities and should be fully operational before the end of my term,” Trump said.