Trump Just Took Another Step to Get Us Ready for Space Battles

It's not Space Force, but Trump didn't skimp on the theatrics of the SpaceCom announcement. 

By Alex Lubben

Aug 30 2019, 12:57am

It’s not quite the Space Force that Donald Trump really

 wants, but he just established the U.S. Space Command (aka SpaceCom) in another small step toward getting the U.S. ready for battles in space. 

At a ceremony in the Rose Garden Thursday afternoon, President Trump announced the newly revamped program, touting its goals of protecting valuable U.S. satellites and preparing the country for war on the final frontier. 

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“It’s a big deal,” Trump said. “As the newest combatant command, SpaceCom will defend America’s vital interests in space, the next war-fighting domain.” 

“And I think that’s pretty obvious to everybody. It’s all about space,” he added.

SpaceCom will serve as a command center for all U.S. military operations in space — not to be confused with the Space Force that Trump wants, which would be a sixth branch of the military. In order to establish that, he needs congressional approval. 

Ever since he was on the campaign trail, Trump’s been pushing the idea of dedicating military resources to figuring out how to fight space battles. The Space Force may have started out as a campaign applause line, but some members of Congress and military leaders have since come around and now support the idea. 

But that doesn’t mean that Trump skimped on the theatrics of the SpaceCom announcement. The command’s flag was proudly unfurled at the end of the ceremony, and the banner image for SpaceCom’s fresh Twitter account looks more like a poster for a big-budget movie release than something associated with a military command center. In big block letters, it reads “COMING THIS THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 2019: