The following is the full transcript of President Donald Trump remarks on the Golden Dome missile defense project at a press conference in the Oval Office on May 20, 2025.
Listen to the audio version here:
President Trump Announces Historic Missile Defense Shield
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much, and thank you for being here in the Oval Office and in 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 Secretary Hegseth, who’s been fantastic, and Secretary Rubio and Space Force Vice Chief of Space Operations General Mike Gutlein. 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 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 they are launched from space. And we will have the best system ever built.
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 percent, which is incredible when you think of it. You’re shooting bullets out of the air.
Funding and Leadership Appointment
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 down deposit. And we have probably, you’re talking about, 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 Gutlein 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 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, they said there’s only one man for the job. So I have a feeling we have the right guy.
But now I’d like to invite Secretary Hegseth and the General to please say a few words and describe the system a little bit. And we appreciate you being here.
The press has really been very fair over the last period of a couple of months. I don’t know what happened to you. It was so much more exciting the other way. But you’ve been very, very fair. We have very high poll numbers, the highest we’ve ever had. And I think we’re doing a great job.
We had a tremendous trip to the Middle East, as you know. It was a really amazing trip. And now I came home, and this is the one I was really looking forward to this day, because this is very important for the success and even survival of our country. It’s a pretty evil world out there. So this is something that goes a long way toward the survival of this great country.
And as I said, we’ll be discussing Canada. They want to hook in, and they want to see if they can be a part of it, and sort of make sense. I guess that’s what I was talking about from day one, you know. It just automatically makes sense, and it won’t be very difficult to do. But they’ll pay their fair share.
Thank you very much, everybody. And, Pete, go ahead.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth Remarks
SECRETARY HEGSETH: Well, Mr. President, to add this to the long and growing list of promises made and promises kept, ultimately, this right here, the Golden Dome for America, is game-changer. It’s a generational investment in the security of America and Americans.
Mr. President, you said we’re going to secure our southern border and get 100 percent operational control after the previous administration allowed an invasion of people into our country. President Reagan, 40 years ago, cast the vision for it, the technology wasn’t there. Now it is, and you’re following through to say we will protect the homeland from cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, hypersonic missiles, drones, whether they’re conventional or nuclear.
It’s not lost on me, sir, also, that you had the vision to start the Space Force, and here we are, and others said we didn’t need it, here we are in the Oval Office with one of the leaders of the Space Force in General Guetlein, leading the charge on putting in place a game-changing golden dome for America.
So sir, it’s an honor to be a part of this bold initiative, we’re going to get to work on it. We have been since you signed the executive order on January 27th, we’ve been fast forward on this, we’re here on this day, and this is just one stop in delivering this defense of the homeland, which is something you’ve charged us with doing, and we’ll keep going until it is complete, sir.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you, Pete. Pete is doing a great job, by the way. Thank you very much. General, please.
General Guetlein‘s Remarks on the Golden Dome Initiative
GENERAL GUETLEIN: Mr. President, today is a great day for the nation as we double down on protection of the homeland. As you’re aware, our adversaries have become very capable and very intent on holding the homeland at risk.
While we have been focused on the peace overseas, our adversaries have been quickly modernizing their nuclear forces, building out ballistic missiles capable of hosting multiple warheads, building out hypersonic missiles capable of attacking the United States within an hour and traveling at 6,000 miles an hour, building cruise missiles that can navigate around our radar and our defenses, and building submarines that can sneak up on our shores, and worse yet, building space weapons.
It is time that we change that equation and start doubling down on the protection of the homeland. Golden Dome is a bold and aggressive approach to hurry up and protect the homeland from our adversaries. We owe it to our children and our children’s children to protect them and afford them a quality of life that we have all grown up enjoying. Golden Dome will afford that. I greatly appreciate your trust in me and your nomination in me and your trust in the team to deliver this. It is a great day for America.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: And also, very importantly, we’re the only ones that have this, we call it, super technology. Nobody else has it. And nobody else has nearly – really near what we have. So this is a very exciting project. This is something that will – I mean, the generals said close to 100 percent protection, so that’s something we need. I think it’s very – and everything is going to be made in the USA, by the way. Very importantly.
So it’s something that I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. And I just noticed you, too, Jim. You’re standing there, and behind you is a very important document, Declaration of Independence. And that was in the vault for many decades under – right under this area. They have vaults with pictures on top. You have Abraham Lincoln. You see, that was the original Abraham Lincoln, the original Washington. And does everybody know who the middle was? General Gorsuch.
TRUMP: General Gorsuch. And he’s doing a write-up as well on this. Many of these – because people were asking about them – almost all of them were in the vaults, or nearby, but generally in the vaults downstairs, where we have some great resources. So, it’s very exciting. And the place has become a little different than you first saw, Jim, right? It’s a little bit different – slightly better. They think we had them. And some were in the vaults for over 100 years, so it’s pretty cool stuff.
Everybody knows Jim Banks. He’s a great congressman, and now he’s a great senator from Indiana. And you might want to say a few words.
SENATOR BANKS: Well, your legacy with Space Force, Mr. President, is already big, but the Golden Dome is going to be an even bigger legacy for our country. And Indiana is going to help you make it.
TRUMP: Right.
SENATOR BANKS: The space satellites that are made in Fort Wayne, Indiana, by L3Harris, all the work done at Crane Navy Base in southern Indiana is going to be a big part of it, and Hoosiers are very proud of that. We’re proud of you.
TRUMP: Thank you very much. You’re going to be a big factor. Thank you, and good luck. Congratulations. You won that race by a lot. That wasn’t even a contest, right?
SENATOR BANKS: Well, thanks to you and all the support.
TRUMP: Thank you very much. Please, go ahead. This is Senator Kramer, and he’s one of our best. Can’t get any better. Go ahead.
SENATOR KRAMER: Well, you’re very nice, Mr. President, and thanks for this. And I remember the day in your first term when you called, and I was a brand-new baby freshman Senator on the Armed Services Committee, and said, you know, I’m going to have a Space Force. Would you lead the effort on the Senate Armed Services Committee? And I felt so proud, thinking that you chose me, only to find out later no one else would do it.
But nonetheless, it worked out really, really well, because North Dakota has some great space assets that contribute to that. And to Golden Dome, no surprise that you would be the one, the president that would come along and put the homeland first. This is just one more example of that. So thanks for this, and for all the support.
Let me just add my strong endorsement of General Guetlein‘s role in leading this. I don’t know anybody better equipped to do it than he is too.
TRUMP: Everybody’s here for sure. Dan Sullivan, Alaska Senator.
SENATOR SULLIVAN: Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you for your continued leadership on missile defense. We were talking earlier, how in 2019 at the Pentagon, you laid out a speech about the Missile Defense Review, that had all these principles on missile defense that you articulated then, during your first term, and now the Golden Dome is all of that. So you’re continuing to lead, we really appreciate it.
The Congress is stepping up, as you mentioned right now in the Budget Reconciliation Bill, $25 billion for the Golden Dome, and what Senator Kramer and Senator Banks and I and many others, we’re working on our, and I’ve briefed you on this before, sir, on our Golden Dome Act, which we think will have, in terms of legislation, it can help cement what you’re doing right here, getting the Congress behind it, not just with the funding, but with authorizations. So we’re working closely with Secretary Hegseth, General Guetlein, the whole team.
So we’re very honored to be here, sir. You know, Alaska is the cornerstone of missile defense right now in terms of ground-based missile interceptors, in terms of radar systems, and track incoming missiles. So my state is honored to continue to play a critical role in all of this, and build on it. And we’re really excited to be here.
TRUMP: Thank you very much, Dan. Great.
Questions from Reporters
TRUMP: Any questions?
REPORTER: Mr. President, you had mentioned at the beginning of your remarks that this was a campaign promise of yours. Have military commanders asked for this system specifically? Because NORAD had said previously that the current system was adequate. So what does this get the United States? How many systems? Is it enough?
TRUMP: There really is no current system. We have certain areas of missiles and certain missile defense, but there’s no system. We just have some very capable weapons that hopefully we never have to use. But we have some very capable weapons.
Now, this is a different league. There’s never been anything like this. This is something that’s going to be very protective. I think you can see what we’re going to do. We want to make sure that if we do go ahead with this, we’re going to be very, very successful. And we hope that we’re going to be successful.
We just can’t duplicate what you have there in Silicon Valley. We never have been able to. And this is a very strong group of people and very strong minds, but they can’t. So we have things that nobody else can have.
You see what we’ve done helping Israel with that. You probably wouldn’t have in Israel. They launched probably 500 missiles altogether, and I think one half of a missile got through, and that was only falling to the ground as scrap metal. It’s pretty amazing. And this is, in terms of technology, far advanced from that system.
REPORTER: Just one follow-up on the adversary. Have you addressed Russia’s ventures in space with a space-based nuclear weapon and told Putin to stop in your conversations with him?
TRUMP: We haven’t discussed it, but at the right time, we will.
REPORTER: Mr. President, with the goal of keeping Americans safe with this, can you talk about the timeline? How long will this take to complete?
TRUMP: We think it’s going to be about a little bit less than three years. And we’ll have a big phase in very early. You know, they’re starting immediately with $25 billion. It’ll cost about $175 billion completed, but we think in two and a half to three years.
REPORTER: Are you confident that you can get the funding you need from Congress?
TRUMP: Yeah. It’s amazing how easy this one is to fund. You know, some funding is tough and some is easy. When we say we’re going to save everyone’s lives in a crazy world, it seems to be very easy to get. Yeah, we’ve already spoken to everybody we have to speak to. Everybody’s in.
I would say, Dan, everybody’s in line here. Right?
SENATOR SULLIVAN: Yes, sir. $25 billion is a down payment in the budget reconciliation bill right now.
TRUMP: Yeah. So, I think people actually love it.
REPORTER: Mr. President, on Russia, are you worried about the reports on a military buildup along the borders towards Finland and Norway?
TRUMP: No, I don’t worry about that at all. They’re going to be very safe. Those are two countries that are going to be very safe.
REPORTER: And the second thing, sir, if I may. Zelensky — Volodymyr Zelensky is saying today that he’s hoping for you to impose new sanctions on Russia. Are you considering that?
TRUMP: Well, that’s going to be my determination. That’s going to be nobody else’s determination. We’ll see how Russia behaves. We’ll see what’s going to happen. You know, we have a pretty critical time right now. I had a talk yesterday for two and a half hours with President Putin, as you know. I also spoke to all of the European — or to many of them — leaders, but they were representing the whole. And I think we had very good conversations yesterday.
REPORTER: Thanks, Mr. President. What companies have asked to be involved in building this system? And have you decided on who will be building it at all?
TRUMP: Yeah, I think what — I’ll let you answer that. You can mention some of your — yours from Alaska is involved. And Alaska is a big part of it because, locationally, they’re sort of perfect. I think that’s your first line of defense, in certain instances. And Kevin will tell you that his state’s involved. But, honestly, all — Georgia is going to be very big. Florida is going to be very big. They’re all going to be very big. Jim, do you want to talk about Indiana?
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yeah. In Fort Wayne, Indiana, where I live, we make all the space satellites at L3 Harris. Across the board, we’re the top manufacturing state in the country. By the way, the tariffs have been very good. We’re auto-manufacturing. They’ve been so good. But this is going to be really good for the defense industry in my state. There’s so much money involved here, there are going to be a lot of American companies involved in making the Golden Dome.
TRUMP: You might also say — you’re talking about the tariffs. Here’s some of the biggest auto plants in the world moving into Indiana, only for one reason. Maybe two reasons. November 5th and the tariffs. Okay?
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yes, sir.
TRUMP: But the tariffs have driven tremendous businesses in this country. But you have one of the biggest in the world being built.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: The Honda Civics.
TRUMP: What?
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: The new Honda Civic made in Indiana. GM has added jobs. Eli Lilly moving pharmaceutical manufacturing from China to the United States is $27 billion. You go on and on with good news in Indiana and across the country because of the tariffs.
TRUMP: Our country was cold as ice a year ago, and now we have the hottest country in the world. This is the hottest country in the world. Nobody even close. If you look at even this last trip that I made, the respect that is paid to our country. We went from being laughed at all over the world, and now we’re the hottest country in the world by far. Dan, go ahead, please.
Layered Defense Strategy and Technology Partnerships
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yes, sir. Mr. President, I think when you look at the system that you’ve laid out, it’s an idea in your executive order of a layered defense. So you have initial ground-based missile interceptors, which are made by some of the big defense companies, Lockheed, Martin, Raytheon. But the beauty of your vision, Mr. President, is that it’s layered, it’s open architecture, and it goes up into space. So this is going to be some of the new defense tech companies that are very interested in it and can bring missile defense at a cost that I don’t think you said it, Mr. President, is unimaginable in terms of how much lower the cost is.
So it’s all across the board in terms of companies, Senator Kramer and I just met with a bunch of them last week, that are interested in this. And you said it earlier, Mr. President, our technology sector is head and shoulders above any other place in the world, and they’re going to be a key part of this, and I think that’s why it makes us so excited.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Mr. President, I think one of the things is, and you alluded to this, the new autonomous space-age defense ecosystem is more about Silicon Valley than it is about big metal, right? And so what’s exciting about this is it makes it available to everybody to participate, to compete. Big companies, mid-sized companies, small companies, but General Goodline is the perfect person, again, to sort all that out, because he understands how it has to work together, ultimately.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s Concluding Remarks
TRUMP: And, Pete, and we’re close with you, we have been discussing this for a long time. Pete and I used to discuss it when I was going to go on a show that he did very well and had tremendous ratings, but all he wanted to talk about was the military. He didn’t want to talk about anything else. We used to talk about this. How about you closing it out?
SECRETARY HEGSETH: Yes, sir. I mean, like I said, without your vision willing to say and do things when other people wanted to look away and pretend like the threat didn’t exist, or be focused on foreign adventurism, some other threat that we’ve been told is affecting us. When you looked at the data, sir, from Russia to the Communist Chinese and other, and their capabilities, what they’re trying to do is supersede us and threaten us.
How do we find the best innovators, the best military leaders, the best companies, tech companies? You mentioned open architecture. That’s exactly right. So multiple companies can pour into this, sir. It’s a layered defense, so if you miss that one, you catch that the next. And it integrates existing technologies that can speak to each other, so it moves quickly, while also investing in further ranging space-based interceptors.
So our enemies, our adversaries, are going to pay a lot of attention to this, just like they have to President Trump from day one. Sir, you’re defending the homeland, defending the American people. It’s going to benefit my kids, grandkids, all of ours in this room. So thank you for your leadership.
TRUMP: We’re going to target them as fast as we can. Great job, everybody. Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Thank you very much, everybody.
TRUMP: No cuts to medical. No cuts to medical.
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