Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump makes a campaign speech at the Johnny Mercer Theatre Civic Center in Savannah, Georgia, U.S. September 24, 2024. REUTERS/Megan Varner/File Photo
Former President Donald Trump has vowed to construct an Israeli-style "iron dome" missile defense shield across the United States should he win a second term.
Mother Jones reporter Sophie Hurwitz recently spoke with some defense experts about this proposal and they were uniform in saying that it made absolutely no sense whatsoever.
In fact, Hurwitz goes so far as to label it Trump's "most ridiculous idea yet."
A missile shield works for Israel because it is a geographically small nation that faces constant missile attacks from terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
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Such a system would be vastly more costly to deploy in the United States, which is many times the size of Israel and, furthermore, has historically good relations with neighboring nations Canada and Mexico.
In all, national security analyst Joseph Cirincione tells Hurwitz that the shield would cost around $2.5 trillion, which is more than triple the United States' entire defense budget.
Jeffrey Lewis, a missile expert at the Middlebury’s James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, was absolutely scathing when asked by Hurwitz to analyze Trump's plan.
“It’s dramatically unclear to me what any of this means, other than just treating it like the insane ramblings of a senile old person," he said. "Is Trump saying the system in Alaska doesn’t work? Is Trump saying that Canada is going to develop artillery rockets to use against North Dakota?"
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