Internet Culture

Trump announces a space army that won’t ever happen

‘Space force’ is (not) here.

Photo of David Covucci

David Covucci

space force

Space force!

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What is it? You don’t need to know! When’s it going to happen? Never! How will it affect you? It won’t!

Then why are you reading this? That gets to the heart of an existential question about how the president is covered by the media. If he makes an outlandish statement with no grounding in reality and no likelihood of ever happening, is it important for that information to be passed along to every American as heedlessly and breathlessly as possible?

What if the name is kinda funny?

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Today, the president announced the creation of a “space force.”

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Space force.

This is not a thing the president can do, really, but who cares? Here’s the president’s logic, announced at a meeting of the National Space Council: “Very importantly, I’m hereby directing the Department of Defense and Pentagon to immediately begin the process necessary to establish a Space Force as the sixth branch of the armed forces.”

Here’s the rest of the statement.

We are going to have the Air Force and we are going to have the Space Force—separate but equal. It is going to be something. So important.

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While the president can’t tell the Pentagon to do things, it’s somewhat hard to accomplish them without money, which Congress would need to provide. Some have already said they wouldn’t do that.

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All that’s left is to read some tweets. Some of them are funny!

https://twitter.com/DepressedDarth/status/1008774895076036611

https://twitter.com/BigAlDell/status/1008775532941492224

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https://twitter.com/MooneyEsquire/status/1008779530805350401

https://twitter.com/karicha6376/status/1008779520864935936

https://twitter.com/DavidLarter/status/1008779205545549825

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Here are some tweets about it being a distraction from bigger issues, which it is, but it’s a very inconsequential one—unless you consider that everyone writing about it being a distraction is in fact a distraction?

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I don’t know anymore.

https://twitter.com/AllisonGrey/status/1008761848131276800

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Anyway. Space force.

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The Daily Dot