3/23/25: Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), Warmed Over and Gold-Plated

On this date in 1983, then-President Ronald Reagan proposed a plan to develop a space-based missile defense system to shield the United States against a possible nuclear attack. He called it the Strategic Defense Initiative, or SDI; critics of the idea quickly labeled it “Star Wars,” because of its greater resemblance to science-fiction than anything within the realm of possibility.

And the critics were right. After an outlay of some $30 billion over ten years, the project was abandoned as unworkable.

And now Donald Trump is proposing — as though it were his original brainstorm — something he calls the “Gold Dome” project, supposedly to serve the same purpose, but without a clue as to how — or if — it might work.

Great way to cut the federal budget, Donnie!

Israel has a defense system known as the “Iron Dome.” But Trump being Trump — that is, being all about glitz and glitter and conspicuous consumption — thinks “gold” is more impressive than “iron,” even when talking about nuclear defense.

And even the name isn’t original . . . though in all fairness, he probably doesn’t know that the United States already has at least one golden dome: the Gold Dome Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, originally built as a bank in 1958. It has served well in protecting the string of businesses under its cover throughout the years; but as a defense against a nuclear attack . . . well, I’d rather take my chances in a subway station, thank you.

**The Gold Dome Building – Oklahoma City**

Or maybe he’s just envious of the magnificent golden domes on churches and cathedrals around the world . . . and most particularly those beautiful “onion” domes in his friend Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

Perhaps he’d like to add a few of those to the White House . . . or, at the very least, to Mar-a-Lago. In the meantime, however, he has had to satisfy his lust for luxury by scattering a few — actually, more than a few — shiny dust-catchers to the Oval Office.