President Donald Trump just announced he’s considering expanding the U.S. Armed Forces to include another brach, the “Space Force.” Trump was presenting the West Point Black Knights football team with the prestigious Commander-in-Chief trophy when he sprung the news on them and a general, who he said was probably not aware he was considering the addition.
“I know that each of you will serve with the same determination and commitment to character that have earned you distinction on the gridiron,” Trump told the cadets. “You will be courageous members of the long grey line, that stretches back to the earliest days of our republic. You will be part of the five proud branches of the United States Armed Forces: Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, and the Coast Guard.”
“And we’re actually thinking of a sixth,” Trump said. “And that would be the Space Force. Does that make sense?” Trump asked, pointing to a general in the audience. “Space Force, General – you probably haven’t even heard that, I’m just telling you now, perhaps. Because we’re getting very big in space, both militarily and for other reasons. And we are seriously thinking of the Space Force.”
“My new national strategy for space recognizes that space is a war-fighting domain, just like the land, air and sea,” Trump continued. “We have the Air Force. We’ll have the Space Force.”
The Washington Post notes that Trump explained “he had proposed the idea as a joke.”
“Then I said, ‘What a great idea. Maybe we’ll have to do that.’ ”
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The Post adds: “The Outer Space Treaty, which the United States signed in 1967, bars states from testing weapons and establishing military bases on the moon and other celestial bodies. It also prohibits the placement of weapons of mass destruction in orbit around Earth.”