Donald J. Trump

Opening Remarks to the Press Announcing Golden Dome Anti-Missile Defense System Design and Leadership

delivered 20 May 2025, Oval Office, White House, Washington, D.C.

[AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED: Text version below transcribed directly from audio]

Thank you very much, and thank you for being here in the Oval Office, [one of] the great places of the world, as we make a historic announcement about the Golden Dome Missile Defense Shield. That's something we want. And Ronald Reagan wanted it many years ago but they didn't have the technology. But it's something we're going to have. We're going to have it at the highest level.

I want to thank Secretaries Hegseth [sic], who's been fantastic, and Secretary Rubio, and Space Force Vice Chief of Space Operations General Mike Guetlein. I also want to recognize Senators Dan Sullivan, Kevin Cramer, and Jim Banks -- fantastic senators, great talents, great political talents and people that love our country.

In the campaign, I promised the American people that I would build a cutting edge missile defense shield to protect our homeland from the threat of foreign missile attack, and that's what we're doing.

Today, I'm pleased to announce that we have officially selected an architecture for this state-of-the-art system that will deploy next generation technologies across the land, sea, and space, including space-based sensors and interceptors.

And 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. So, as usual we help Canada -- do the best we can.

This design for the Golden Dome will in -- 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. Once fully constructed, the Golden Dome will be capable of intercepting missiles even if they are launched from other sides of the world, and even if the are launched from space.

And we will have the best system ever built. As you know, we helped Israel with theirs [Iron Dome], and was very successful, and now we have technology that's even far advanced from that. But including hypersonic missiles, ballistic missiles, and advanced cruise missiles -- all of them will be knocked out of the air.

We will truly be completing the job that President Reagan started 40 years ago, forever ending the missile threat to the American homeland. And the success rate is very close to 100%, which is incredible when you think of it -- you're shooting bullets [sic] out of the air.

I'm also pleased to report that the One Big Beautiful bill will include $25 billion for the Golden Dome to help construction get underway. That's the initial -- sort of a down [de]posit. And we have -- probably you're talking about [turning to General Guetlein] -- General, we're talking about $175 billion total cost of this when it's completed.

This afternoon, I'm also announcing that I will appoint, very importantly, General Guetlein to lead the ambitious new effort as the direct reporting program manager for the Golden Dome. A very talented man.

And I'm very honored to have been the one that helped or really created Space Force. Space Force has turned out to be a tremendous success. We were third in space and now we're number one in space by a lot. It's not even close.

And Mike is a four-star Space Force general, the recipient of the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, one of the most respected people in the world having to do with defense. You know, we have offense and we have defense. I'll bet he's good at offense, too. And he has an unmatched background in missile warning technology and defense procurement. General Guetlein also knows that we need to move fast. No one is more qualified for his job and everybody -- this was a universal acceptance of General Guetlein -- everybody that knows him and knows everybody else [sic] has said there's only one man for the job. So, I have a feeling we have the right guy.

Page Updated: 5/21/25

U.S. Copyright Status: This text = Property of AmericanRhetoric.com.