Trump’s preposterous plan for a military force in outer space

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he president’s fever dream of commanding an interplanetary corps of space cadets has all the makings of a footnote in defense policy and a case study in Trumpism. His probably star-crossed plot to launch a sixth branch of the military and call it the Space Force exemplifies his cartoonish but belligerent approach to the presidency.

One clue that Trump’s plan is not really serious is his confession that when he first uttered the words “Space Force,” he was “not really serious.” Another is that his official directive amounted to little more than his previous spacey musings on the subject. It consisted of a cursory statement at a meeting of the National Space Council on Monday, during which he urged the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to “go get it,” before signing an unrelated executive order on space junk.

Throughout, Trump labored to create an appearance of significance. “That’s a big statement,” he said of his own statement, using the word “important” half a dozen times in less than two minutes. “It’s going to be something.”

But is it? Given the president’s penchant for mass distraction, the unveiling was suspiciously timed amid the then-gathering uproar over his administration’s cruel decision to wrest thousands of children from parents seeking asylum in the United States, which he defended shortly before the Space Force announcement. After another rambling attempt to justify the family separation policy before the National Federation of Independent Business the next day, Trump brought up the Space Force again, apropos of nothing, and then literally hugged an American flag. Like Trump’s jarring choice of the segregationist construct “separate but equal” to describe the Space Force’s relationship with the Air Force, the gesture underscored the backward jingoism that connects his determination to defend the country against Central American toddlers with his desire to project its armed forces into orbit.

The president’s nationalism, however, is coupled with a curious indifference to the workings of the national government. While the Constitution makes him the commander in chief of the military, it gives Congress the authority to “raise and support armies”

and regulate them. The Air Force, the newest military branch, was created by the National Security Act of 1947.

As it happens, Congress recently considered and rejected a more moderate form of Trump’s proposal, killing a provision in the latest defense spending bill to form a Space Corps within the Department of the Air Force, which already maintains a Space Command. Lawmakers instead ordered a Pentagon study of the issue that is due in August, making Trump’s timing that much more awkward.

“Establishing a service branch requires congressional action,” said Republican Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio, who chairs the relevant House Armed Forces subcommittee. “We still don’t know what a Space Force would do, who is going to be in it, or how much is it going to cost.”

Trump’s White House and his secretaries of defense and the Air Force were among the opponents of the Space Corps proposal last year. Jim Mattis, the defense secretary, wrote in a letter to congressional leaders that he doubted the need for “a new military service and additional organizational layers at a time when we are focused on reducing overhead and integrating joint war-fighting functions.”

Not everyone was so underwhelmed by the latest version of the proposal, though. A Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman called the president’s talk of space domination alarming and potentially destabilizing.

Trump’s threat to deploy a legion of starship troopers lends itself to needless provocation of fellow signatories to the Outer Space Treaty, which limits extraterrestrial military activity and embodies the spirit of international cooperation beyond Earth. But his Space Force suffers from a deserved lack of support among the lawmakers and officials without whose backing it won’t get off the ground.