Experts speak out against Golden Dome at satirical Trump monument unveiling

Ben Cohen of "Ben and Jerry's" Ice Cream unveiled a satirical monument of President Trump in front of the U.S. Capitol Wednesday morning, criticizing his plan for a "Golden Dome" missile defense system. 

"Our county is underwater. We are drowning in debt, and wasting another $4 trillion on a holy dome ain't gonna help!" Cohen says. "If we don't stop this boondoggle, we're sunk!"

"The Golden Dome is not golden for the people of the United States or the world," said Former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner. 

She says people in her come city of Cleveland would "much rather have the money that is being wasted on a pipe dream and a fantasy invested in lifting them and their children out of poverty." 

"There is a connection between this foolishness and foley and the reason we can't have nice things in the United States of America. They tell us they can't afford universal healthcare, but they can afford this!" 

"We tried everything, and nothing has worked, not ground-based interceptors, not space-based lasers, not Brilliant Pebbles, not space-based interceptors, not ground based lasers, not particle beam weapons," said author and national security expert Joe Cirincione. 

"And now, Donald Trump in his infinite wisdom, has repackaged this snake oil in a new bottle." 

He essentially says the project will be extremely expensive and simultaneously ineffective. 

"The United States has been building ballistic missile defense, a magical shield against nuclear weapons for over 80 years," said Dr. Igor Moric, research physicist at the Princeton Program on Science and Global Security. 

"The reality is ballistic missile defense does not work, it cannot work, and it will not work. Space-based missile defense, as envisioned by the Golden Dome, cannot work because of known physical and technological realities limiting what it can do." 

Dr. Ira Helfand of the Physicians for Social Responsibility and Back from the Brink campaign made the case that if Russia deployed their current nuclear weapons load at the U.S., without making any new weapons, and the Golden Dome could intercept an optimistic 80% of them, 75 million Americans would still be killed. 

"This system does not protect the American people," he says. "The attempt to build this system will fuel the arms race and torpedo efforts to actually get rid of these weapons." 

Filmed by Ford Fischer