US 'golden dome' back in play as 'insurance policy' decades after Reagan's Cold War-era proposal

A Golden Dome, peddled by President Donald Trump during his campaign, is how the United States could protect itself from the "existential threat" that a nuclear electromagnetic pulse (EMP) strike presents, an expert says.

Historian William Forstchen, a New York Times bestselling author and an expert on EMPs, discussed with Fox News Digital how a Golden Dome can provide a safety net for the danger that an attack poses.

"The Israeli system has been very effective in protecting Israel against the aggression of Iran and others. It's called the Iron Dome, but that's a tactical defense system, meaning it shoots down missiles only a couple of miles up," he said. 

"But if the U.S. had a Golden Dome, it would be a strategic defense system. It would take out systems, ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles) that are launched at the United States and destroy them in space before they get to the United States."

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President Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan. President Reagan initially proposed a Golden Dome, but technology wasn't where it needed to be. (Getty Images)

While an EMP strike, at first glance, might appear to be more science fiction than fact, Forstchen said that the potential for such an attack was recognized decades ago.

"It's a no-brainer to me. We need a strategic defense system. It was proposed in the '80s, but the technology wasn't quite there that technology is now," he said. "It can be built. We have to defend the United States against an EMP attack, which could destroy us in a matter of minutes."

Forstchen, citing Congressional reports from 2002 and 2008, said that 80%-90% of Americans would be dead a year later if an EMP strike happened.

President Donald Trump signs an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House, March 7, 2025. (Reuters/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo/File Photo)

Trump has ordered the construction of an advanced, next-generation missile defense shield to protect the U.S. from aerial attack. In January, he signed an executive order that tasks Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth with drawing up plans to build an "Iron Dome for America" that will protect Americans from the threat of missiles launched by a foreign enemy. 

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In doing so, Trump kept a campaign promise to prioritize missile defense.

"By next term we will build a great Iron Dome over our country," Trump said during a West Palm Beach event on June 14. "We deserve a dome…it's a missile defense shield, and it'll all be made in America."

There has been no news during Trump's second term of the administration fulfilling his campaign promise, but Forstchen said to give it time.

An electromagnetic pulse is a burst of electromagnetic energy produced by a nuclear explosion in the atmosphere, considered capable of widespread damage to power lines, telecommunications, and electronic equipment. (Department of Homeland Security)

"It'll take some time from the president until we have a defense system in place," he said.

The EMP expert said that in 2020, the Department of Defense was set to investigate the Golden Dome and make it a reality, but it was sidetracked by the worldwide pandemic and President Biden's term.

"We have to act quickly. We have to act this year. Don't delay this two or three years down the road," he said.

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Forstchen said that at first glance, the thought of spending billions on new technology may be met with hesitancy. He compared the Golden Dome to homeowners purchasing insurance.

"We need an insurance policy to protect the United States of America," he said. "It's that simple. Yes, it will cost. How much did we spend on the Green New Deal or on EV charges?"

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Forstchen said that he believes that the U.S. could get targeted by the likes of North Korea or Iran.

"I'm old enough to remember the Cold War. There was a time when Russia and then China were the big adversaries, but the whole thing was mutually assured destruction. They launch at us, we launch at them and nobody wins," he explained. "But what about a proxy player or a third world player? Suppose tomorrow that madman in North Korea decides to strike the United States?

"That's a real possibility. That's a real threat. So I don't see Russia or China so much. I definitely do see North Korea and Iran as the big players that I worry about."

A geomagnetic disturbance is a temporary disturbance of the Earth's magnetosphere caused by a solar wind shock wave and/or cloud of magnetic field that interacts with the Earth's magnetic field. (Department of Homeland Security)

The late Peter Pry, a nuclear weapons expert and former staff director at the Congressional EMP Commission, shared the same opinion. Before his death in 2022, Pry warned that Kim Jung Un's launch of a high-altitude ballistic missile was a test of North Korea's EMP capabilities against the United States.

"Cars would be paralyzed," Pry told Fox Business in May 2017. "Airplanes could fall out of the sky. You'd have natural gas pipeline explosions, nuclear reactor overloads. And worst of all, if you had a protracted blackout, it would be a serious threat to the survival of the American people."

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Fox News Digital has reached out to the Department of Defense for comment.