ICYMI: Senator Markey Slams Trump Administration’s Wasteful Spending on Dangerous “Golden Dome”

Watch: Senator Markey blasts Trump's trillion-dollar defense system

Washington (September 3, 2025) - Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) today delivered remarks on the Senate floor objecting to the so-called "Golden Dome for America," the trillion-dollar space-based missile defense system pushed by Donald Trump to counter missile attacks from "any foe," which could instead waste billions of taxpayer dollars, ignite a nuclear arms race, and aggravate corruption. Below is an excerpt from Senator Markey's remarks as prepared.

"Republicans and Donald Trump want to spend more on a 'Star Wars' missile defense and the nuclear arsenal, among many other things. We have seen this Republican playbook before. They claim we must cut spending-on education, on health care like Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, on housing, on foreign aid, on climate solutions. But when it comes to defense contractors, they open the purse strings, pouring billions of dollars into the pockets of their well-connected friends. It's shameful. President Trump says his Golden Dome will 'complete the job' Reagan started. What it will really do is bury arms control, balloon the deficit, and boost the bottom lines of billionaires.

"Before we waste a trillion dollars on an outdated idea that history tells us is a fool's errand, we owe it to American taxpayers to have a plan, to know how much it will cost and to ensure that it will work. This is dangerous spending on nuclear weapons we don't need and missile defenses that don't defend but will provoke others into building more nukes and aiming them at us.

"Real security means investing in our hospitals, pharmacies, and community health centers, which are struggling to keep their doors open. Real security means funding public schools and hot meals for students, so they can learn and grow. Real security means tackling the climate crisis head-on-building a clean energy future here at home and breaking the grip of fossil-fueled companies.

"Let's finally put the People before the Pentagon. Nurseries before nukes. Buses before bombs. Let's not trade real security for a tarnished gold illusion. We must put a stop to this reckless plan-before it launches America into the next unwinnable nuclear arms race."

On July 8, 2025, Senator Markey, along with, Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Rep. John Garamendi (CA-08), and Rep. Don Beyer (VA-08), co-chairs of the Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control Working Group, led their colleagues in writing to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, urging the United States to refrain from building a "Golden Dome" space-based system.

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