Trump's relocation of Space Command reverses former President Joe Biden's selection of Colorado Springs as the command center for the U.S. Space Force. Trump has been expected to move Space Command to Alabama, a deeply red state where he enjoys much more support than here in Colorado. (Although El Paso County, where Colorado Springs sits, voted for Trump overwhelmingly in 2024.)
The Trump administration established Space Command temporarily at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs in 2019. Peterson had been home to Space Command from 1985 to 2002, until it was shut down by the George W. Bush administration. Trump then awarded Space Command to Huntsville, Alabama, in his first term, but when Joe Biden won the 2020 election, the feds investigated whether the move to Alabama was political rather than merit-based, and in 2023 said Peterson would be the permanent headquarters.
Trump has been expected to relocate Space Command's headquarters to Huntsville, which is nicknamed "Rocket City" as it hosts NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and the Army's Redstone Arsenal, as well as the Army's Space and Missile Defense Command.
Some Colorado Republicans, like former Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers, pushed hard to keep Space Command at Peterson. In 2023, Suthers recounted a conversation with Trump in 2020, during his unsuccessful presidential run, wherein the president asked if he'd carry Colorado in the election. Suthers said his chances were "uncertain," then Trump questioned whether Space Command should remain in the state.
The shift will likely move the 1,700 Space Command personnel to Alabama. A 2020 estimate of Space Command's economic impact pegged it at more than a billion dollars.
While many commentators looking for the backstory here point to the fact Colorado voted for the Democratic presidential candidate in 2016, 2020, and 2024 — every time that Donald Trump ran for president — we'd like to present a different, less complicated theory: This could be Trump's petty revenge against South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker for fixating on the president's tiny penis in the show's latest season.
Trump Blames Mail-In Voting for Moving Space Command
At his press conference today at noon, Trump characterized the move as punishment for Colorado’s status as an all-mail-in voting state. Republican Alabama Senator (and former University of Auburn football coach) Tommy Tuberville subsequently dubbed his home state’s new facility "The Donald J. Trump Space Command Center."In a post on social media, Governor Jared Polis says that moving the Space Command headquarters "undermines national security, wastes millions of taxpayer dollars, and disrupts the lives of military families."
