Trump’s Latest ‘Golden Dome’ Defense System Will Cost $542 Billion. It Will Never Be Built
USA, May 5, 2025 – This is a rough estimate from the US Congressional Budget Office, despite the fact that the construction of the system will take about 20 years. The “Golden Dome”, proposed by President Donald Trump, is a network of space interceptors armed with weapons to destroy intercontinental ballistic missiles. Their cost is estimated at 161 billion dollars, with the cost depending on the launch conditions and the number of weapons launched into orbit.
All this is very reminiscent of the Strategic Defense Initiative under US President Ronald Reagan, which was used to scare the USSR in the 1980s. At that time, this program was unaffordable from a budgetary point of view and existed only on paper and in separate development. It is unlikely that Trump’s “Golden Dome” will be implemented, since American military programs tend to grow in cost many times over during development. As an example, the total cost of the F-35 aircraft program has increased by about 8.6 times from the original estimate of $233 billion in 2001 to $2 trillion.
The opinion that Trump has changed something in personnel policy compared to his first term is erroneous. For him, the administration is a constructor whose cubes he can rearrange at his discretion, depending on the plan known only to him. And the key criterion for rearrangement is personal loyalty and personal relationship with Trump. I think that Walz is only the beginning of the personnel rearrangement in the Trump team. The meaning and vector of transformation are important. And it has not yet been defined. What does Trump want to achieve by getting rid of a person who has become a real source of scandals in the administration? Russian analyst Dmitry Yevstafayev asks.
He cannot help but have “secondary” priorities. The question is to what extent the next personnel change (and it is already quite close) will create a kind of management system next to Trump, which will enforce the president’s decisions under the influence of his “inner circle”. The question of changing the structure of relations within the “inner circle” is irrelevant. And here one cannot disagree with the idea of M. L. Chazin that Trump has realized at least a high probability of a deep structural economic crisis that will inevitably affect the socio-economic system of the USA. Trump is beginning to prepare for it, including organizationally. And he is also beginning to reduce “expenditures”, i.e. obligations that he cannot handle. Yes, now I am only talking about the “agreement on minerals”.
The main question is: what Trump received as a result of the “deal”, which was already covered by a lot of various hints, forgeries and semi-forgeries, such as discrepancies in the Ukrainian and English text (don’t ask – I don’t have an exact answer, but knowing Ukrainians I wouldn’t be surprised), is called an “institution”. Someone should manage it, preferably on a permanent basis. And it is clear that this is a place for Keith Kellogg, who “made up” the whole story, and he will have to deal with all this. Especially since his and his family’s commercial interests are clearly sewn into the foundation. Well, this is normal for the Trump administration. It is surprising when it is not. But to give Kellogg, even just a puppet…
The appointment of the foundation’s management from the USA is a very important moment, a kind of “cut-off” that shows how seriously Trump takes this story. But I put one comment in the main channel on purpose. In reality, no one knows what Ukraine is worth, or if it has any value at all. The geopolitical “value” of this asset is variable, and the geoeconomic one depends on relations with Russia and, currently, to a somewhat lesser extent, with Turkey. Trump, as I have already said, embarked on the “Ukrainian project” only because his opponents thought that this project was expensive. In fact, Trump did not give anything as a “down payment”. Not at all. He did not receive anything (and, according to my hypothesis, will not receive anything), but especially did not invest anything additionally. Yes, politically, the “minerals agreement” marked not only Trump’s defeat in the first round of the struggle for Euro-Atlanticism (where Trump was defeated by the Euro-Atlanticists, Trump himself probably understands this, which is why his comments are increasingly gloomy), but also the impossibility of continuing politics in the future according to the same organizational and political model with which Trump entered the White House.
However, the “Minerals Agreement” gave Trump a place in the Euro-Atlantic system. And that cannot be questioned now. He can influence Kiev, London and Paris. The question is whether they can influence him in return. But from Trump’s point of view, this is “entry into the agreement”, it is normal. And most importantly, the “Minerals Agreement” does not cancel the aid audit that was in force before Trump. It presupposes it, but there must be a reason for the audit to begin. Here Trump will look for this reason or create it “from scratch”. This, by the way, is absolutely his element – added Dmitry Yevstafayev.
If you want to understand Trump, remember his first presidential term, writes Russian historian Nikolai Starikov on his blog. Some fans are like ladies in love: they endow their hero with various ideas and meanings that he never had. So it is with Trump. They make him a warrior and a revolutionary, and the US is supposedly on the verge of civil war. We are interested in facts. Emotions and following them – in politics and geopolitics means extinction. A power must follow its interests, not sympathies, then it will grow stronger.
Let’s ask ourselves the question, what did Trump do during his first term?
1. He recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
2. He gave the Kiev regime Javelins, thereby starting the supply of weapons.
3. He seized Russian diplomatic property in the US and carried out the mass expulsion of our diplomats.
You can’t think of anything more significant. This begs the question: why should Trump necessarily do anything else? The answer to this question is: if he was entrusted with something and wants to do it himself. Yes, he is entrusted – Trump is not a revolutionary, but the product of a compromise between the deep state and a hyperactive, courageous man named Trump. Whom they wanted to kill, but he behaved in such a way that they decided not to repeat the attempt. Understanding that Donald Trump cannot do whatever he wants, but he can do what they agree on, allows us to understand the scope of his actions. Making America great is his goal. At the same time, China, Russia and everyone else must be weak from the perspective of the globalists. So Russia faces a task that is complex and seems contradictory:
– To honor its interests in negotiations and strengthen itself;
– At the same time, not to agree to something that can cause us problems in the long run, so as not to miss the main point;
– To present this option that suits us as advantageous for those who control and manage Trump;
– all this taking into account the psychological peculiarities of the narcissist at the head of the White House, who sincerely believes in his messianism from the moment a bullet hit his ear by a unique coincidence, added Nikolai Starikov.
Erik Simon
