The space warfare president

Donald Trump added a branch to the U.S. military in his first term and kick-started a $175 billion missile defense initiative in his second with the same impetus in mind: Future wars will be waged from space.Why it matters: The U.S. is poised to pour hundreds of billions of dollars into a zone of warfare few Americans understand, but that the world's biggest powers are racing to dominate.Driving the news: Trump announced Tuesday that he was moving Space Command to Huntsville, Alabama, long known as Rocket City.Moving SPACECOM to Redstone Arsenal, he said, "will help America defend and dominate the high frontier.""We were losing the race in space very badly to China and to Russia, and now we're far and away No. 1 in space," Trump claimed. "We're [reestablishing] SPACECOM with a mission to protect American space assets and detect any threat to our homeland."The big picture: After green-lighting the Space Force in his first four years, Trump has returned to office with a renewed focus on space-based warfare, which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has called "the most important domain."This term, Trump launched the Golden Dome initiative, reminiscent of the Reagan-era Star Wars project with its space-based interceptors.The president has claimed the futuristic missile shield will "forever [end] the missile threat to the American homeland" and be completed in just three years. Some experts are less confident.Threat level: Gen. Stephen Whiting, the head of SPACECOM, earlier this year advocated for weapons in space — a stark statement on a topic where officials often stick to vague talking points."The trend from the first Trump administration to the second Trump administration is definitely a solid support of the military in space, in terms of making it a priority," Victoria Samson, the chief director of space security and stability at nonprofit Secure World Foundation, told Axios."The Space Force has been much more vocal about space being a warfighting domain, that there's going to be a war in space and that we need to be able to handle it," Samson said."They have found a ready and willing audience in the Trump administration to keep up that kind of rhetoric, to keep pushing for that."🔭 Zoom out: Space has been a source of superpower competition since the Cold War — successful experiments and exploration translated to national bragging rights.Today, the American advantage is waning. Beijing and Moscow are hot on Washington's heels as they launch spacecraft and refine anti-satellite weapons.The intrigue: Trump's partnership with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk helped put space high on the agenda. His interest has survived their breakup.Trump issued an executive order last month on commercial space competition, seeking, among other things, "cutting-edge defense systems" developed stateside.The flipside: While pouring money into Golden Dome, Trump also proposed a steep cut to NASA's budget.The space agency lacks a permanent head. Plus, the National Space Council remains in limbo.The bottom line: The weaponization of space may eclipse its exploration under Trump 2.0.Go deeper: Colorado vows to challenge Space Command move to Alabama

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