Congress Republicans to include $27 billion boost to Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’ in tax bill

Republicans in the US Congress plan to introduce a sweeping $150 billion defense package that will give an initial $27 billion boost to US President Donald Trump’s controversial Israel-inspired Golden Dome missile defense shield, according to a document and a congressional aide.

The measure, which will be part of Trump’s sweeping tax cuts bill, comes in addition to the approved $886 billion national security budget for 2025 and will also fund the building of 14 warships and lift homeland security spending.

The measure, details of which have not been previously reported, was designed to address the military’s most pressing needs, Republican Senator Roger Wicker, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, tells Reuters in an interview.

He says it is focused on supercharging key areas such as naval shipbuilding, missile defense, and space sensing as well as strengthening the country’s military presence, particularly in the Indo-Pacific, part of a broader strategy to prevent conflict.

“Strength, particularly in the Indo-Pacific, will make China less eager to break the status quo, which has led to a vast global prosperity among people who’ve never had it before. This is part of a plan to prevent war,” Wicker says.

Republican leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees hammered out the legislation that will be unveiled as soon as Friday evening.

The $27 billion investment in Golden Dome will fund the building of more missile interceptors and the purchase of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) antiballistic missile batteries, according to the congressional aide. THAAD is made by Lockheed Martin.

Trump repeatedly floated the idea of building a version of Israel’s Iron Dome aerial defense system for the US during his 2024 election campaign, and in January of this year, he signed an executive order to start building it.

While promoting the idea, however, he appeared to ignore the fact that the Iron Dome is designed for short-range threats, making it ill-suited to defending against intercontinental missiles that are the main danger to the United States.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX and two partners have emerged as frontrunners to win a crucial part of the Golden Dome program that would track incoming missiles, Reuters reported last week.

Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, says in a statement that the bill will be moved through the House Armed Services Committee next week and he wants it to get to the president’s desk as soon as possible.

“We’re revitalizing our defense industrial base, strengthening our ability to deter adversaries like China, and giving our service members the support they deserve,” the statement says.