Donald Trump pledged to build an “Iron Dome” missile defense system for the United States if he is reelected in November’s presidential election.
The former president and Republican frontrunner to challenge the current office holder, Democrat Joe Biden, for the White House made the remarks at a rally in New Hampshire on Tuesday. He spoke ahead of the state’s primary, which he later won against his final GOP opponent Nikki Haley.
“I will build an Iron Dome over our country. A state-of-the-art missile defense shield made in the USA. We do it for other countries. We help other countries. We don’t do it for ourselves. We need it too,” Trump said.
Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries developed the Iron Dome missile defense system, which since 2011 has received $1.6 billion in U.S. funding, with another $1 billion approved by Congress last year.
Trump described seeing the technology in action and being impressed by its capabilities during his visits to the Jewish state.
“I’ve seen shots that you wouldn’t even believe. Missile launch. They go, ‘Missile launch!’ and you hear a bell go. I see this. I like it. It’s so incredible. And these guys. These geniuses. These are not muscle guys,” he continued from the stage in the city of Laconia.
“We are going to have the greatest Iron Dome anywhere in the world,” the former president continued to applause. “And it’s going to be manufactured right here in New Hampshire.”
Trump said last week after winning the Iowa caucuses that Hamas would not have attacked Israel on Oct. 7 if he had still been president, and pledged to “solve” the “horrible” situation in Israel if he wins in November.
In his victory speech, Trump declared from the Iowa state capital Des Moines that Biden is the “worst president that we’ve had in the history of the country.”
Trump, who served as president from 2017 to 2021, said that if he had remained in the White House, “Russia would not have attacked [Ukraine], Israel would never have been attacked.”
He said these two issues would be resolved quickly should he be voted back into office later this year.
“The Ukraine situation is so horrible, the Israeli situation is so horrible, what’s happened. We’re going to get them solved, we are going to get them solved very fast,” he said.