WASHINGTON — President Trump’s national security advisor Mike Waltz on Wednesday forcefully defended the administration’s Golden Dome missile defense initiative, insisting that the project is not a fad and will remain a top administration priority.
Speaking April 30 at the Hill & Valley Forum on Capitol Hill — organized by Silicon Valley tech leaders — Waltz hailed Golden Dome as a strategic necessity.
The project — initially introduced as “Iron Dome for America” before being renamed Golden Dome — has emerged as a flashpoint in Washington’s defense policy debate. Proposed as a next-generation missile shield featuring space-based sensors and interceptors, Golden Dome received a major boost in a GOP-backed spending bill. But it’s also drawing sharp opposition from Democrats, who warn the program could undermine nuclear stability and provoke U.S. adversaries.
“I firmly believe we will look back on the initiation of Iron Dome, much like we look back on the game changer that was SDI [the Strategic Defense Initiative] in the 80s,” Waltz said, referring to the project’s original name before it was rebranded.
The Strategic Defense Initiative, labeled “Star Wars” by critics, was a missile defense program proposed by President Ronald Reagan in 1983 to shield the United States from nuclear attacks.
Waltz drew parallels between Golden Dome and Trump’s push to establish the Space Force during his first term—an initiative initially ridiculed but later vindicated by events.
“I recall just a few years ago, President Trump saying we need a space force and that this is a domain that we have not paid enough attention to, that this is the domain that deserves a seat at the table, just like all of our other services, that you can’t be number one on Earth if you’re number two in space,” he said.
“We all remember the jokes and the Netflix series … and yet, just six and seven years later, we see how prescient that was, and what a game changer that’s been,” Waltz added. “In every single war game that you play out now, the first shots are in space and in cyber.”
Partisan divide over Golden Dome
The partisan divide over Golden Dome was on full display on Wednesday during a House Armed Services’ Strategic Forces Subcommittee hearing.
“A new administration has taken office, with a new vision for investment in missile defense capabilities and defending the homeland that is long overdue,” said Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.), who argued that the United States faces growing missile threats from adversaries developing hypersonic weapons, long-range cruise missiles, and orbital bombardment systems.
“These capabilities enable our adversaries to strike the United States and coerce U.S. leadership in the event of a crisis, and our ability to defend against them has not kept pace,” DesJarlais said.
He acknowledged potential partisan disagreements but emphasized “common-sense, bipartisan elements at the core of the president’s vision.”
Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), the subcommittee’s ranking Democrat, offered a starkly different assessment, describing Golden Dome as a “fantasy” that could trigger an arms race and potentially embolden rather than deter adversaries.
“The goal of missile defense is to keep us safe, but paradoxically, more missile defense is not necessarily better if it upsets strategic stability, the equilibrium that deters any nation from launching a nuclear attack that could explode into a nuclear war,” said Moulton. “This is why, even though Golden Dome sounds good, it could actually make us less safe.”
