NPR: Trump wants a Golden Dome over America. Here's what it would take

[Dennis Donovan]

NPR - Trump wants a Golden Dome over America. Here's what it would take

April 22, 2025
6:00 AM ET
Geoff Brumfiel

President Trump has told the Pentagon to take another look at missile defense. Technology to shoot down missiles has existed for decades, but the kind of missile shield Trump is looking to build would be much more complex -- and expensive.

A key part of the new missile defense system, which Trump described as "Golden Dome" in a speech earlier this year, will likely be space-based interceptors, according to experts and an executive order signed by the president.

A number of defense companies have expressed interest in trying to build the Golden Dome. Last week, Reuters reported that Elon Musk's firm SpaceX had joined a bid for the project. Musk later refuted that claim in a post on X.

Here's why a critical part of Golden Dome might be built on the final frontier, and what building such a system would involve.

/snip

[Ocelot II]

1. I love the name "Golden Dome." It's perfect:

Gold is soft and easily bent, but very expensive.

[EYESORE 9001]

10. More like 'gilded dome'

Looks like gold, but is a cheap imitation.

[PatSeg]

2. Sounds like he's channeling Reagan

[bdamomma]

4. or is it

Bibi???

[PatSeg]

5. Ah yes, probably a bit of both

[misanthrope]

17. Derivative to a fault.

"Last week, Reuters reported that Elon Musk's firm SpaceX had joined a bid for the project. Musk later refuted that claim in a post on X."

Musk's denial is as good a confirmation for me that he's involved. He's every bit the inveterate liar that Trump is.

[PatSeg]

19. Sadly true

These strange men make cartoon villains look sane and reasonable.

[Dan]

3. Well, I suspect that Trump will form a Committee with MTG as the head to

Speak to Captain Kirk and Star Trek governing committee about their space lasers. Definitely provide us protection from the Klingons

[AZJonnie]

14. I think the term you're looking for is 'Star Fleet'

[Dan]

15. Yeah, and old mind here :)

[Traildogbob]

6. Trump already

Has a Golden Dome, under his scalp rug.
After the spray painting, that creates his Golden mug.
Oh damn, that’s a poem. Or the start of a song.

[lapfog_1]

7. all defeated by a small fleet of cargo ships

sitting in international waters.... with dirty bombs, no missiles... just bombs. Not too far from major population centers.

Or Vlad baby with his hypersonic cruise missiles.

Or by a many thousand km border that a determined saboteur can slip through with a backpack nuke.

or.... or... or..

[Irish_Dem]

8. Goal of this boondoggle is for Trump and his family to get much richer.

[gab13by13]

11. People still don't get it.

The one thing that Krasnov does well is launder money.

Wait until his Sovereign Wealth fund starts filling up. MBS put him, on to that gimmick.

[Irish_Dem]

13. I know, denial is real.

Trump and his spawn are making a fortune.

Word on the street is that Trump's kids got very rich with the tariff market manipulation
and insider training.

And all the businesses coming to DC to make deals about the tariffs have to start
doing business with the Trump kids.

This is why they are so quiet right now.

[Maru Kitteh]

9. He wants to start bombing the world without so much worry about

the bad publicity of dead babies and such at home. If he can shoot down all the missiles coming in, he can be just like his buddy, Netanyahu. Kill for fun. Who cares about the future? He ain’t gonna be there. He wants his fun, now.

[Carlitos Brigante]

12. "Shower", I think they meant "shower". nt

[Disaffected]

16. Oh, has Elon figured out

how to overcome the decoy problem (and a host of other issues such as the impossibility of testing such a system)?

Guaranteed to become the boondoggle of the millennium....

[jmowreader]

18. Have you watched The Purge?

In that wonderful piece of dystopian cinema, James Sandin had gotten rich building and selling security systems that keep murderers out of your house on the one night a year you can run around killing anyone you want without repercussions. When Purgers - both regular ones trying to kill a homeless man they were harboring (the real intent of The Purge is to let people kill off all the homeless) and the Sandins’ neighbors who were pissed off that James got rich selling them things they wanted - started working hard to get into the Sandin home, James finally had to tell his family the system didn’t work against all attacks and that a vicious-enough attack would get through.

The same situation will happen in any SDI scheme like the one Trump is cooking up.