Sources tell Threat Status that Mr. Trump is weighing the appointment of a “Golden Dome czar” to coordinate the administration’s push for a next-generation missile defense shield to protect the entire continental United States.

The ambitious Golden Dome project was the subject of the Threat Status Golden Dome for America event this morning, with key lawmakers, analysts and defense industry leaders detailing their visions for the project during the major gathering just outside Washington.

There is a great deal of optimism and excitement around the cutting-edge project, but there are still more questions than answers, including which agency or agencies will be tapped to lead the implementation and operation of whatever missile defense system ultimately gets built. The appointment of a Golden Dome czar could be essential to addressing those questions.

The last American held hostage in the Gaza Strip was released Monday in a goodwill gesture by Hamas as Mr. Trump headed to the Middle East. Israeli American Edan Alexander, who was held hostage for 19 months by the Palestinian terrorist group, was handed over to the Red Cross and then to Israeli forces before being flown by helicopter to a hospital in Tel Aviv.

The release of Mr. Alexander, 21, has rekindled hopes that a new ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas could be implemented during Mr. Trump’s visit to the region. The president, who is now in Saudi Arabia, is also slated to visit Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. While he has not scheduled to stop in Israel, sources tell Threat Status he is likely to focus the trip on pushing for Saudi normalization with Israel to extend the Abraham Accords of his first term.

Israel has said 58 hostages remain in captivity and that roughly 23 are alive. Hamas is believed to be holding the bodies of four dead American hostages. Many of the 250 hostages taken by Hamas-led militants in the 2023 rampage were freed in previous ceasefire deals.

It sounds simple: Officials from across the federal government, from the State Department to the Pentagon to the CIA, should use one fully secure messaging app for private communications. But it’s much more complicated, according to Jared Shepard, CEO of Hypori, a mobile platform that facilitates access to secure government data on personal cellphones for U.S. troops and government workers.

He spoke exclusively with the Threat Status weekly podcast from the convention floor at SOF Week 2025 in Tampa, Florida. And Mr. Shepard said it’s actually not surprising that top government officials earlier this year chose to use the commercial messaging app Signal for a now-infamous group chat about U.S. military strikes against Yemen’s Houthi rebels. The group chat came to light after Atlantic Editor Jeffrey Goldberg was inadvertently added to the discussion.

“The more secure it is, the harder it is to use, the less likely people are going to use it. When you make something that’s easily available like Signal, which is relatively secure, and you make that easily available, people tend to use what’s easily available,” Mr. Shepard said.

He said that secure identity validation and other technology exist to, in theory, offer a safe platform for sensitive discussions — one that would have made sure no journalists were added to the group. But it’s not clear who in the government would coordinate and set security standards for those kinds of classified, interagency conversations.

Saudi Ambassador to the United States Reema Bandar Al-Saud writes in an op-ed for The Washington Times that “the kingdom looks forward to welcoming President Trump this week on the ‘first overseas state visit’ of his second administration.”

“Together, we are mediators, allies and stewards leveraging our strengths to foster peace and security. That is what makes Mr. Trump’s visit so timely. His agenda of trade, investment, energy security and counterterrorism is in sync with our goals,” the ambassador writes.

“Saudi Arabia stands ready to leverage its relationships, provide a neutral ground and fulfill our obligation to promote peace where we can,” she writes. “The Russia-Ukraine conflict further highlights our role as a mediator, working with our U.S. counterparts to bring peace and stability to Europe and beyond. We share Mr. Trump’s view that the war has cost too many lives. This reflects our broader foreign policy agenda, which seeks stability and prosperity across borders.”

• May 13 — 2025 Global Security Forum, Strength Through the Storm: Industry, Innovation, and the Future of U.S. Military Power, Center for Strategic & International Studies

• May 14 — The Spy and the State with Jeffrey P. Rogg, International Spy Museum

• May 14 — Navigating a New Era of NATO, Atlantic Council

• May 30-June 1 — IISS Shangri-La Dialogue (Singapore), International Institute for Strategic Studies