Trump wants an Israeli-style ‘Iron Dome' missile defense shield for U.S.
President Donald Trump is reportedly slated to sign an executive order that would call for the construction of a missile defense shield that could protect the United States against long-range attacks – similar to Israel's Iron Dome.
The 'next generation' missile defense shield would protect the U.S. from ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles and other advanced aerial attacks, according to a fact sheet seen by CNN.
Though no weapons of this sort have been used against the U.S. in modern times, it takes inspiration from the defense system that the U.S. helped Israel build and deploy in the 2000s.
On the campaign trail, Trump promised to create an 'impenetrable dome' to protect the U.S. from attacks.
Newly-approved Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth teased the executive order in a speech on Monday.
'There are more executive orders coming that we fully support, on removing DEI inside the Pentagon, reinstating troops who were pushed out because of Covid mandates, the Iron Dome for America,' Hegseth said.
According to the president, the new system 'will be made all in the USA.'
What is the Iron Dome?
The Iron Dome is the name of the aerial defense system developed and used by Israel to recognize, intercept and destroy short-range rockets and other weapons.
Deployed in 2011, the system operates 24/7 in all weather conditions and can detect incoming threats between two and 43 miles away.
Once the system detects a threat it fires missiles at it to prevent it from striking populated areas.
The developers of the Iron Dome, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries, say it has a success rate of 90 percent.
The U.S. supplied Israel with more than $2 billion to help create and maintain the Iron Dome.
What would the U.S. Iron Dome do?
Like the Iron Dome, the system Trump wants the U.S. to develop would detect, intercept and destroy incoming threats. However, the one the president wants would work against long-range missiles.
It would reportedly use advanced space-based systems to detect and shoot down threats.
'The Executive Order directs implementation of a next generation missile defense shield for the United States against ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles, and other next generation aerial attacks,' the fact sheet for the executive order said according to CNN.
The fact sheet did not indicate how much it would cost to construct an Iron Dome or how long it would take to develop.
The U.S. military currently uses several air defense systems including the Patriot System and Stinger launcher – both allow military members to launch missiles at aerial threats to intercept them.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mirror
20 minutes ago
- Daily Mirror
9 insane moments as Donald Trump's beef with Elon Musk implodes spectacularly
The history books are filled with breakups and beef. There's Jen and Brad, Drake and Kendrick, Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas. Henry VIII had a few pretty prominent fallings out. And many have compared Donald Trump to Nero, the Ancient Roman emperor whose second marriage to Poppaea Sabina ended with murder. Today, the gradual then sudden implosion of Donald Trump's bromance with Elon Musk surely joins the canon of history's most epic breakups. Beeves so operatic and consequential there can surely be no reconciliation. And a ruckus which will genuinely have an impact on world events for years to come. Here's how it went down - and what happens next. The signs had been there for a while - but the first visible cracks in Trump and Musk's bromance started to appear the morning after the Wisconsin Supreme Court election in April. After winning the state by around 30,000 votes in the Presidential election last year, Trump thought his pick jn the race - Brad Schmiel - had a decent shot. Especially after Musk - whose bottomless wallet helped swing the election for him - decided to pump millions of dollars into the race. In the end, Schmiel suffered a thumping defeat to liberal judge Susan Crawford. The state voted for Crawford by 55% to 45% - the first indication that Trump's magic - and Elon's cash - were not infallible. The electoral shine was starting to rub off. In the days that followed there was chatter that Trump wasn't all that happy about sharing the limelight with Musk if he wasn't going to see results. It was quietly agreed Musk would step back a bit and spend more time with his failing car business. Fast forward to last Friday, and the 130 days Musk was allowed to be a "special government employee" without having to make transparency declarations were up. There was a deeply weird press conference cum exit interview in the oval, where Musk, sporting a mean looking shiner, got extremely upset about a newspaper that accused him of being high on Ketamine during the campaign. And then he was gone, Donald probably thought. Until a few days later, when Elon started tweeting - Or X-ing, or whatever it's called these days - about Trump's budget bill. The infamous "Big Beautiful Bill" - or as Musk described it - a "disgusting abomination". The details aren't important, but the gist of his beef with the bill are that he was brought in to cut government spending, and in order to get them to vote the bill through, Trump had to let congress attach quite a lot of government spending to it. On Thursday, he escalated matters even further by going right after Trump's beloved trade war. "The Trump tariffs will cause a recession in the second half of this year," Musk wrote. Speaking in the Oval Office last night, Trump said he was "disappointed" in Musk's response to the Big Beautiful Bill. Of course, he went further on Truth Social later, saying: "Elon was 'wearing thin,' I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!" Regular readers will recall Trump was kind of fine with hawking electric cars a month or do ago, when he turned the South Lawn into a Tesla dealership. In one of the most unexpected escalations since Will Smith got out of his seat at the Oscars, Elon decided now was time to play the Epstein card. In remarks that we should note are entirely unsubstantiated, he tweeted: "Time to drop the really big bomb: "@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. "Have a nice day, DJT!" It's not a secret that Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein used to hang out at New York Society events. There are pictures and video. Any suggestion of anything other than this is entirely unsubstantiated. Trump followed that up with an entirely unveiled threat - and a brutal assessment of Musk's work with Doge... "The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn't do it!" Musk then reminded the President that a huge chunk of America's space travel capabilities are tied up in his companies. He tweeted: "In light of the President's statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately." NASA relies on the Dragon spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station. In fact, there's a launch scheduled for next Tuesday. "I don't mind Elon turning against me," Trump said. "But he should have done so months ago. This is one of the Greatest Bills ever presented to Congress. It's a Record Cut in Expenses, $1.6 Trillion Dollars, and the Biggest Tax Cut ever given. If this Bill doesn't pass, there will be a 68% Tax Increase, and things far worse than that. I didn't create this mess, I'm just here to FIX IT. This puts our Country on a Path of Greatness. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" Since then, Trump's Truth Social posts have mostly been promoting a Newsmax story about "strong" polls for the President. All four polls in the story give him sub 50% approval. Trump's poll average 46.5%, the second worst polling for a president 133 days into his term. The only president who polled worse at this point in his presidency was himself, eight years ago. Mum and Dad went off to seethe at this point, so the kids started to pick sides. Former Trump aide turned far-right revolutionary Steve Bannon picked his side - unsurprisingly backing his old boss. He urged Trump to immediately seize SpaceX from Musk. And he said: "They should initiate a formal investigation of his immigration status because I am of the strong belief that he is an illegal alien, and he should be deported from the country immediately. "Elon Musk is illegal, and he's got to go." On the other hand, Ian Miles Cheong, who is somehow a major figure in the MAGA movement despite being some kid who lives in Malaysia, is going hard Team Musk. "President vs Elon. Who wins? My money's on Elon," he tweeted last night. "Trump should be impeached and JD Vance should replace him." As tension between the White House and Europe heats up, the Mirror has launched its very own US Politics WhatsApp community where you'll get all the latest news from across the pond. We'll send you the latest breaking updates and exclusives all directly to your phone. Users must download or already have WhatsApp on their phones to join in. All you have to do to join is , select 'Join Chat' and you're in! We may also send you stories from other titles across the Reach group. We will also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose Exit group. If you're curious, you can read our . Tennessee. He was visiting Nashville last night as a featured guest of a Republican National Committee fundraiser. As the public fallout picked up steam, he tweeted this picture of him with comedian podcaster Theo Von: He, of course, remains Team Trump - and posted: "President Trump has done more than any person in my lifetime to earn the trust of the movement he leads. I'm proud to stand beside him." Well, when Elon wakes up, he'll probably do some more tweeting. That's literally the only thing we can solidly predict with this guy. And Trump is scheduled to hold an Executive Order signing in the Oval Office at 6.30pm UK time - followed by a ceremony to swear in the new Secretary of the Navy. There will be cameras, there will be questions. It will be worth tuning in. Later, Trump is going to a UFC fight in New Jersey. Get some popcorn, clear your schedule. Follow our Mirror Politics account on Bluesky here. And follow our Mirror Politics team here - Lizzy Buchan, Mikey Smith, Kevin Maguire, Sophie Huskisson, Dave Burke and Ashley Cowburn. Be first to get the biggest bombshells and breaking news by joining our Politics WhatsApp group here. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you want to leave our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. Or sign up here to the Mirror's Politics newsletter for all the best exclusives and opinions straight to your inbox. And listen to our exciting new political podcast The Division Bell, hosted by the Mirror and the Express every Thursday.
Daily Mail
20 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Joe Biden's only hand-signed pardon during his final months in office
Joe Biden's only hand-signed pardon during his final months in office was also his most controversial - his son, Hunter. The bombshell comes as Donald Trump ordered a sweeping investigation into Biden's use of an autopen to sign a huge number of presidential documents. Trump alleges the widespread reliance on the device that replicates a person's signature concealed Biden's 'serious cognitive decline' and amounted to a 'dangerous and unprecedented conspiracy.' Biden, battling an aggressive form of prostate cancer and facing mounting questions about his mental acuity throughout his time in the White House, granted clemency to more than 1,500 individuals in his final weeks in office. Biden's administration touted the figure as the largest single-day act of clemency in US history. But according to documents reviewed by the Department of Justice and White House officials, virtually all of those pardons were signed using the autopen. The one glaring exception was Biden's controversial hand-signed pardon of his son Hunter, shielding him from prosecution for any federal crimes committed between January 1, 2014, and December 1, 2024. For months, Biden had assured Americans he would not interfere in his son's legal woes but in December 2024, after Hunter pleaded guilty to felony gun charges and faced additional federal tax violations , Biden suddenly reversed course. 'From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department's decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted,' Biden said in an emotional address. 'There has been an effort to break Hunter - who has been five-and-a-half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they've tried to break me - and there's no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough. 'I hope Americans will understand why a father - and a president- would come to this decision.' Aside from three felony gun offenses, the first son was also charged with federal tax crimes over his alleged failure to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes. Special Counsel David Weiss, who led the probe into Hunter, blasted Biden's pardon as an affront to justice. In a report, Weiss excoriated Biden's public statement dismissing the years-long investigation as 'selective' and 'infected by raw politics.' 'This statement is gratuitous and wrong,' Weiss wrote. 'Other presidents have pardoned family members, but none have used the occasion to malign public servants based solely on false accusations.' The pardon effectively ended Weiss's investigation, barring any further charges against Hunter Biden. Biden also issued pardons for his two brothers and his sister shortly before leaving office, hoping to shield them from potential prosecution under Trump, who had promised retribution during last year's campaign. Other pardon recipients included members of a congressional committee that investigated the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol. Now back in the White House, Trump has seized on the controversy, ordering Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House Counsel David Warrington (pictured) to investigate Biden's use of the autopen. In a scathing memorandum, Trump stated: 'It has become increasingly apparent that former President Biden's aides abused the power of presidential signatures through the use of an autopen to conceal Biden's cognitive decline and assert Article II authority. 'This conspiracy marks one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history. The American public was purposefully shielded from discovering who wielded the executive power, all while Biden's signature was deployed across thousands of documents to effect radical policy shifts.' Trump's directive calls for a forensic review of every document signed during Biden's presidency. It includes everything from pardons, executive orders, judicial appointments and proclamations to determine which bore Biden's authentic signature and which were replicated by autopen. The autopen, though little-known to the public, has long been used by US presidents to manage the deluge of documents requiring a signature. The device can accurately replicate a signature, saving presidents precious time. The Justice Department, under Democratic and Republican administrations, has recognized the use of an autopen by presidents to sign legislation and issue pardons for decades - and even Trump himself acknowledges using it. 'Autopens to me are used when thousands of letters come in from young people all over the country and you want to get them back,' Trump said on Thursday. 'Biden's cognitive issues and apparent mental decline during his presidency were even 'worse' in private, and those closest to him 'tried to hide it' from the public,' Trump said in his statement. 'To do so, Biden's advisors during his years in office severely restricted his news conferences and media appearances, and they scripted his conversations with lawmakers, government officials, and donors, all to cover up his inability to discharge his duties.' Past presidents, including George W. Bush and Barack Obama, have employed the autopen in limited circumstances, such as signing routine letters or lower-level appointments. However, critics argue that Biden's reliance on the device was unprecedented. An exhaustive review by the Oversight Project found that nearly every document from Biden's presidency from 2021 to 2025 bore identical autopen signatures, except for the document announcing his withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race. Biden's reliance on the autopen came as his public appearances diminished, with aides scripting his engagements, heavily curating his interactions with lawmakers, and significantly limiting press conferences. Behind the scenes, insiders claim Biden's inner circle - including family members - wielded disproportionate influence, raising fresh questions about who was truly making presidential decisions. Trump, while acknowledging he occasionally used the autopen himself , argues Biden's alleged overuse could nullify significant executive actions. 'Essentially, whoever used the autopen was the president,' Trump said during a press conference. 'That's wrong. It's illegal. It's so bad and it's so disrespectful to our country.' House Oversight Chairman James Comer has launched parallel inquiries, demanding testimony from Biden's former top aides including Mike Donilon, Anita Dunn, Ron Klain, Bruce Reed, and Steve Ricchetti , alleging they participated in a 'cover-up' of Biden's cognitive decline. Comer cited explosive allegations from CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios' Alex Thompson's book 'Original Sin,' which claimed 'five people were running the country, and Joe Biden was at best a senior member of the board.' The committee has also issued subpoenas for Biden's physician Kevin O'Connor and several White House aides who reportedly helped shield Biden's true condition from public view. Republicans argue that if Biden's aides, not Biden himself, made key decisions, it could throw into question the validity of major executive actions including the pardons of his siblings, other family members, and members of the House committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot. Biden has lashed back at the accusations. 'Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency. I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn't is ridiculous and false,' Biden said in a statement. Biden's reliance on the autopen came as his public appearances diminished, with aides scripting his engagements, heavily curating his interactions with lawmakers, and significantly limiting press conferences. Behind the scenes, insiders claim Biden's inner circle - including family members - wielded disproportionate influence, raising fresh questions about who was truly making presidential decisions. He accused Trump and Congressional Republicans of creating a 'distraction' to divert attention from ongoing political battles, including a contentious tax bill moving through Congress. 'This is nothing more than a distraction by Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans,' Biden declared. 'They are working to push disastrous legislation that would cut essential programs like Medicaid and raise costs on American families.' In private, Biden's aides insist that autopen use was limited to routine matters, and that Biden personally reviewed major decisions. However, newly surfaced internal memos suggest that a handful of senior advisors controlled access to the president and directed autopen usage without always consulting him, raising further doubts about the authenticity of some presidential actions. The implications are enormous - if Trump's investigation finds that Biden's use of the autopen was improper, it could challenge the legitimacy of thousands of presidential decisions, from judicial appointments to sweeping regulatory changes. House Republicans are already signaling they may attempt to invalidate actions signed via autopen, raising constitutional questions that could land before the Supreme Court. 'The American people deserve to know who was really running the country,' Trump said. 'This scandal could be one of the greatest in American history.'
The Independent
21 minutes ago
- The Independent
News of Trump-Musk ceasefire saves Tesla shares from another nosedive after $99bn loss
Tesla shares are expected to rise by 5.7 per cent following a $99 billion hit due to a feud between Elon Musk and Donald Trump. The electric vehicle manufacturer's share price dropped over 14 per cent after an argument between Musk and Trump, impacting Tesla's market capitalisation. A ceasefire between Musk and Trump is expected, with a meeting planned, leading to renewed investor interest in Tesla stock. The sell-off caused Tesla to lose its status as a $1 trillion company, and Musk′s networth decreased by approximately $34bn. Potential changes to tax incentives for EV purchases and threats to cancel government contracts with SpaceX could further negatively impact Tesla and Musk's other business interests.
