On Tuesday, President Donald Trump said that his new strategy for national security recognizes space as a war-fighting domain and that he was thinking of creating a “space force.”
During a speech to military personnel in San Diego, California, President Donald Trump said, “We have the Air Force, we’ll have the Space Force,”, after surveying border wall prototypes during his trip.
“You know, I was saying it the other day — because we’re doing a tremendous amount of work in space — I said, ‘Maybe we need a new force, we’ll call it the Space Force.’ And I was not really serious, and then I said, ‘What a great idea, maybe we’ll have to do that. That could happen,’” he said.
At the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, President Donald Trump told an audience of service members, that “Space is a war-fighting domain, just like the land, air, and sea,” further adding that, “We may even have a Space Force, develop another one, Space Force. We have the Air Force, we’ll have the Space Force.”
President Donald Trump continued, “So think of that, Space Force,”, he further added,”because we are spending a lot and we have a lot of private money coming in, tremendous. You saw what happened the other day, and tremendous success. From the very beginning, many of our astronauts have been soldiers and airmen, coast guard men and marines. And our service members will be vital to ensuring America continues to lead the way into the stars.”
“We should have a new force called the Space Force,” he said
In his Twitter post, President Trump declared,“It was my great honor to deliver a message at the Marine Core Air Station Miramar to our GREAT U.S. Military, straight from the heart of the American People: We support you, we thank you, we love you – and we will always have your back!”
“From the very beginning, many of our astronauts have been soldiers and sailors, airmen, Coast Guardsmen and Marines, and our service members will be vital to ensuring America continues to lead the way in to the stars.”
Trump added that the U.S. is “way, way behind” on advances in space, “but we’re catching up fast.”
“The two-year budget agreement I just reached with Congress will provide $700 billion in defense funding this year, the largest ever, larger by far than any country has ever spent,” Trump said. “Next year we will raise that number to $716 billion. That’s a lot of money.”
“We’re also investing in our greatest weapon of all, our most powerful weapon, our most beautiful weapon, our most beautiful weapon, our most brilliant weapon: you,” Trump said. “In 2019 we want to give you the largest pay raise in over a decade. You deserve it.”