Donald Trump Wants U.S. To Dominate Space By Establishing ‘Space Force’

President Donald Trump directed the pentagon to establish a sixth branch of the U.S. military at a National Space Council meeting on Monday – in particular, he would like a “space force” in order for the United States to exercise extraterrestrial dominance.

“Our destiny beyond the Earth is not only a matter of national identity, but a matter of national security,” Trump said at the White House event. Those in attendance included former astronaut Buzz Aldrin and executives of major aerospace companies. “When it comes to defending America it is not enough to merely have an American presence in space. We must have American dominance in space.”

Trump said the “Space Force” would be “separate but equal” to the Air Force. The president’s unfortunate phrasing recalls America’s racial segregation practices in the not-too-distant past.

Trump provided no details and no timeline for the creation of a “Space Force.” The Pentagon’s chief spokesperson Dana W. White issued a statement on the matter, saying: “We understand the Pentagon’s guidance. Our Policy Board will begin working on the issue, which has implications for intelligence operations for the Air Force, Army, Marines and Navy. Working with Congress, this will be a deliberate process with a great deal of input from multiple stakeholders.”

This directive follows two other major space policy initiatives from the National Space Council: streamlining the federal space bureaucracy to reduce red tape and streamline licensing and oversight of commercial space activity, and returning humans to the moon before eventual missions to Mars.

The president finished his time at the meeting by signing his administration’s third Space Policy Directive, which calls for the establishment of new protocols and procedures to manage and monitor the growing number of satellites in low-Earth orbit and the junk and debris that are also there, posing a threat to expensive spacecrafts, and left the room.