There’s been a ton of focus over the past two months about trivial matters like global trade, denuclearization on the Korean peninsula, offsetting that denuclearization by poking the Iran hornet’s nest (because when John Bolton is your national security advisor, there’s a rule that says for every one nuclear standoff you resolve, you have to start another one), the economy, and on, and on, and on.
All of that has served to distract the world (and the galaxy, for that matter), from the most important initiative proposed by the Trump administration: “Space Force”.
Back on March 13, Trump floated the idea of an intergalactic army of space marines while speaking to a group of soldiers after touring the 8 wall prototypes that are currently gathering dust in the San Diego desert. Here, for those who need a refresher, was the first mention of “Space Force”:
Now again, there’s been a lot going on in the six or so weeks since Trump made that announcement, but we’ve done our best to make sure he doesn’t forget about the program.
any progress on space force?
— Heisenberg Report (@heisenbergrpt) April 19, 2018
Well as it turns out, the answer to our question is “yes.” Yes there has been some progress on Space Force, or at least in Trump’s mind there has because on Tuesday, he delivered the following update:
No, Mr. President. No it doesn’t “make sense.”
The dictionary doesn’t think so either:
The idiom "make sense" means to be reasonable or comprehensible.
Used in a sentence: President Trump wants to know if the Space Force makes sense. https://t.co/UtS8zr53ji https://t.co/Y59joaSDzq
— Dictionary.com (@Dictionarycom) May 1, 2018
It doesn’t make sense because what he’s proposing is a literal space army, the purpose of which is entirely unclear and Elon Musk’s best efforts notwithstanding, we haven’t even gotten a man beyond the moon yet, so it’s not readily apparent what a space army would do. Here’s Bloomberg trolling him with the headline blast:
- TRUMP SAYS U.S. CONSIDERS 6TH MILITARY BRANCH – SPACE FORCE
On second thought, considering Wilbur Ross’s big plans for the moon, maybe it makes more “sense” than we’re giving it credit for. After all, who’s going to protect Wilbur’s lunar “Gas N’ Go” from getting robbed?
Wilbur Ross on outerspace: Space comes naturally to us… some of the media already thinks this administration is in outer space, so it would only make sense we want to commercialize it. #MIGlobal
— Carleton English (@carletonenglish) May 1, 2018
Predictably, Twitter is all over it.
If you were in Space Force, would you eat the moon? It's a simple question! pic.twitter.com/5HgyLkGO4j
— Matt Palmer (@mattpalmer1978) May 1, 2018
https://twitter.com/lorylorybb/status/991356225643253760
https://twitter.com/MrFilmkritik/status/991359018974228481
https://twitter.com/mpalmquist509/status/991358960115400704
https://twitter.com/jnsanchez/status/991358298078285824
Area man speaks.
3/13/18: "We have the Air Force, we'll have the Space Force! We have the Army, the Navy. You know I was saying it the other day, I said maybe we need a new force, we'll call it the 'Space Force.'"
5/1/18: “We are seriously thinking of a Space Force.” pic.twitter.com/m25GNLihiw
— RufusKings (@RufusKings1776) May 1, 2018
https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/status/991358048802365441
The Donald, as a ‘Space Cadet,’ we should expect nothing less.