(The hill) – Former President Trump told his supporters Sunday that if elected, he would like to put former NFL player and failed Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker in charge of a novel missile defense shield.
Walker, a staunch Trump ally, appeared at a rally in Macon, Georgia, where he twice spoofed the Republican presidential candidate’s name.
“It’s time for it to stop, and it will stop on Tuesday when we vote for my friend and your friend Donald Trump Jr. – Donald Trump. Jonald J. Trump,” Walker said at the end of his speech.
Trump, speaking after Walker, said that if elected he would “build a missile defense shield made entirely in the United States” and “put Herschel Walker in charge of this little sucker.”
Trump last year has declared that he would create an “iron dome” for the United States in a second term, referring to the missile defense system used by Israel.
On Sunday, he said “many” such systems were being built in Georgia.
But Iron Dome is used against short-range missiles and Any such system was built to protect the United States An attack on the mainland would have an astronomical cost and would hardly be suitable for deterring medium- and long-range missiles, for example from North Korea or Russia.
It is unclear whether Trump meant that Walker would be responsible for overseeing all U.S. missile defense systems or the process of building a novel system.
Walker spent 12 seasons in the NFL starting in the overdue 1980s before retiring and pursuing business ventures in food processing, with no experience in missile defense or national security.
He eventually entered politics, serving under Trump as co-chair of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition from 2019 to 2020. Walker launched his first political campaign in the 2022 Senate elections in Georgia, where he supported Trump’s campaign ending the southern border wall and called on Washington to invest “significantly” in the military.
However, Walker’s campaign was plagued by controversy and confusing and false statements. He falsely said that there were 52 states, falsely claimed that he was once an FBI agent, and lied about graduating from the University of Georgia when in reality he had left the University of Georgia to play professional football and his had not completed his studies.
