WASHINGTON — A report published last month by defense analyst Todd Harrison estimating the potential costs of the Golden Dome missile defense system landed like a fiscal bombshell. President Trump in May said it would cost $175 billion over three years. The Congressional Budget Office projected between $161 billion and $542 billion over two decades. Harrison’s “robust all-threat defense” scenario came in at $3.6 trillion over the same time period.

During a meeting with reporters Oct. 2, Harrison opened the hood on exactly how he arrived at the jaw-dropping numbers — and challenged skeptics to run the calculations themselves.

The senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute demonstrated the “ Defense Futures Simulator ,” an online tool he used to generate the Golden Dome cost es

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