Missing the Point – President Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’

The point of President Trump’s head-spinning, “flooding the zone” strategy is to move so fast in so many different directions that he can exceed the ability of the courts and opposition in Congress to stop him.

Think of it as the often illegal, unethical, highly destructive version of throwing everything against the wall to see what sticks.

To help assure his success, he’s fired the Inspector Generals and taken over the Justice Department to eliminate whatever resistance they might have offered to what he’s doing.  Eventually, inflation and unemployment caused by his tariffs, negative public opinion, and losing control over Congress in the next midterm elections may catch up with him, but it’s a play he thinks he can win.  Let’s hope not.  In the meantime, he’s feeding his thirst for authoritarian control and imperialism.  It’s no joke or clever distraction.  He really does want to take over Canada and Greenland – and have his head chiseled on Mt. Rushmore.

In the process, he does what all great conmen do.  In the face of abundant evidence to the contrary, he lies repeatedly and wraps his ridiculous policies in some minor element of common, bipartisan truth.  We all agree, for example, that the criminal element of illegal immigrants should be deported.  That said, he’s rounded up 238 people, claiming them to be members of a vicious Venezuelan gang, and shipped them to El Salvador, a country with an authoritarian President with whom Trump seems to have bonded.  For a fee of $6 million, the El Salvador government is going to imprison these deportees and do with them whatever they want.

At no point has President Trump proven that the people he has deported are, in fact, illegal immigrants and members of this gang.  There has been no due process.  He just picked them up and shipped them out of the country, in blatant defiance of a court order, because they constituted the equivalent of a military invasion of the United States by Venezuela.  And then declined to respond to the federal judge who has demanded proof of Trump’s assertions.  President Trump’s most recent reaction to the court is basically, “You’ll have to trust me.  I can’t give you the information about these deportees you’ve requested because that information is a state secret I’m not at liberty to disclose.”  All the while, he’s daring the Judge and American people to argue that we don’t want these bad, bad people out of the country….Do you see what he’s doing? Are you the least bit fooled by it?

By the way, we are not at war with Venezuela.  Trump doesn’t care and is penalizing the entire country of Venezuela by threatening to impose a 25% tariff on any other country that buys Venezuela oil or gas.  Hurting countries and hurting people without reason is okay if it serves his greater purpose.  President Trump is not a nice guy and doesn’t understand diplomacy, which, for him, is just a buzzword he uses when it’s convenient.

Somewhere in all the confusion the President has created, he’s committed to do something so preposterous that it has been buried in the news cycle and hasn’t received the attention it deserves.  I’m talking about the President’s proposal to create what he refers to as his “Golden Dome.”  (President Trump loves gold stuff.)  It’s meant to be our version of Israel’s “Iron Dome” that protects Israel from incoming terrorist missiles.

Regardless of the cost, Trump is asserting that we’re going to build an allegedly impenetrable anti-missile defense system that will protect the entire United States – including Alaska, Hawaii, and our territories. – from any enemy missile attack.  Once again, he has put forth an objective that seems reasonable.  I mean, come on.  Who doesn’t want to be protected from annihilation by incoming nuclear warheads?  But then, when you think about it, does building a Golden Dome really make any sense?

Have any of you noticed how Trump keeps scaring us with the potential for World War III?  An existential catastrophe from which only he can save us?

Consider the following:

1. The development and deployment of such an anti-missile capability will take who knows how many years, maybe decades, and cost unknown bazillions of dollars. Who will benefit from all this spending?  Government contractors, of course, including – no surprise here – Elon Musk.  Heaven forbid he should lose his status as “richest man in the world.”

2. Despite universal agreement that we’re already carrying too much national debt and can no longer afford to continue deficit spending, the cost of a Golden Dome will likely stunt any hope of repaying all that debt.

3. What government services, exactly, will President Trump require that we give up to fund his Golden Dome? What additional taxes will he require the middle class to pay?  Somebody’s got to write that check, and taxing the wealthiest Americans isn’t an option.

4. The missiles that have been fired at Israel are nowhere near as sophisticated as those that would be hurled at us from countries – Russia and China, among others – with far greater technical capabilities, including Russia’s new hypersonic missiles.

5. He’s already started a trade war with our international friends and opponents.  What’s next, a greatly expanded arms race?

6. And won’t our closest allies in Europe want a Golden Dome of their own?  Maybe we can share our technology, assuming they’re still talking to us.  Or publish it via chat on Signal.

7. One version of the Golden Dome protects just our major cities. Even assuming that this model allows most of our population to survive a nuclear holocaust, survivors won’t have any food, electricity, or many other essential goods and services when the war is over.  How long will the atmosphere be radioactive?  More importantly, where will the President live or play golf if Mar-a-Lago is destroyed?

8. Let’s suppose, just for the sake of discussion, that we can build Trump’s Golden Dome and that it is, in fact, impenetrable. Won’t this potential give the United States a profound advantage over our adversaries so that we can attack without fear of reprisals?  Might that potential advantage encourage preemptive action by our enemies?

9. In effect, the successful implementation of a Golden Dome would nullify the basic rule of “mutually assured destruction” that has discouraged the use of anyone’s nuclear arsenal all these years.  What does Trump propose to replace that guardrail?

For a President who claims to be so committed to diplomacy and master of the art of the deal, wouldn’t a negotiated peace – including worldwide economic and scientific cooperation and eventual nuclear disarmament – make more sense?

His advocating a project like the Golden Dome makes a person question whether or not President Trump really cares about all his policy initiatives.  Are these really his ideas or is he just being used by influencers who are willing to contribute and compliment their way into his narcissistic good graces?