Washington (AFP) – President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced that the headquarters of the US Space Command will be moved from Colorado to Alabama, reversing a decision by his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden. The move, which Trump openly linked to his debunked conspiracy theory about election fraud by opponents, follows a bitter, years-long battle between the two states over which should host the facility. The command center oversees US operations in outer space and brings with it a significant boost to jobs in the area where it is located.
“I’m thrilled to report that the US Space Command headquarters will move to the beautiful locale of a place called Huntsville, Alabama,” Trump said at the White House. Democrat Biden had decided to keep Space Command — known as SPACECOM — at its temporary location in Colorado, after Republican Trump picked Alabama as the location during his first term.
“We initially selected Huntsville for the SPACECOM headquarters. Yet those plans were wrongfully obstructed by the Biden administration,” Trump said. One of the reasons given by Trump for the military reorganization was his dislike for Colorado being one of the US states that allows voters to mail in their ballots. Trump, who himself has cast a vote by mail in Florida, repeated his claim that the method is linked to voter fraud — a theory repeatedly proved to be false, but which is part of the Republican’s broader, unprecedented attempts to discredit trust in US elections.
“When the state is for mail-in voting, that means they want dishonest elections, because that’s what that means. So that played a big factor” in the SPACECOM decision, Trump said. Space plays a vital role in just about every aspect of modern warfare, with many military technologies reliant on a network of orbiting sensors and satellites.
© 2024 AFP
