Cost estimate for 'Golden Dome' missile defense system balloons to $1.2 trillion

President Trump's Golden Dome may end up being quite a bit more expensive than originally thought. A new report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates it will cost about $1.2 trillion to deploy the Golden Dome missile defense system and operate it for 20 years. That's more than double the CBO estimate from last year, which was $542 billion, and about seven times higher than the number cited by the White House when it announced the project in May 2025 ($175 billion). …