Former President Donald Trump discussed several new ideas on Monday night including his interest in building an “Iron Dome” missile defense system in the U.S. and creating a national guard for the Space Force.
Trump shared his comments while speaking at a National Guard Association of the U.S. conference in Detroit.
During the remarks from the former president he discussed his creation of the Space Force, which was established in 2019 to protect U.S. assets in space from foreign threats, while also throwing out new ideas of the sixth branch of the U.S. military.
“One of my proudest achievements in my first term was to create Space Force, the first new branch of the armed forces in over 70 years; it’s a big deal,” he said. “Now that Space Force is up and running, I agree with your leadership — you want this very badly — but I agree that the time has come to create a Space National Guard as the primary combat reserve of the U.S. Space Force.”
Trump went on to say that he would sign legislation creating a “Space National Guard” if he wins in November, noting that it is “very, very important.”
The remarks from Trump come after the Biden administration proposed incorporating Air National Guard service members into the branch of military in April.
The former president also touched on domestic defense systems during his speech, pledging to build an antimissile system in the U.S. similar to Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system.
“And we’re going to build a great Iron Dome for missile defense around our nation. Other countries have said Israel has it. You know, [former President] Ronald Reagan wanted this many years ago, but we didn’t have the technology at that point. But now we have the technology,” Trump said.
This is not the first time that Trump has vowed to build an Iron Dome-style system in the U.S. He first started mentioning it while campaigning throughout the past year.
At one point, Trump said he would build “the greatest dome of them all” because of the “hostile people out there.”