President Donald Trump is already campaigning on his proposed new Space Force.
Hours after Vice President Mike Pence outlined the Administration plans to create the Space Force – a proposed sixth military branch focused on space security- the Trump campaign sent out a mass email asking supporters to vote for a logo for the Space Force.
“President Trump wants a SPACE FORCE- a ground breaking endeavor for the future of America and the final frontier,” the email, signed by Trump’s 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale, said. “As a way to celebrate President Trump’s huge announcement, our campaign will be selling a new line of gear. But first we have to make a final decision on the design we will use to commemorate President Trump’s new Space Force- and he wants YOU to have a say”
All of the proposed logos feature the phrase “Space Force” with one logo that also includes the words “Mars Awaits.”
Trump first announced plans to create a new branch of the U.S military service he dubbed the Space Force in June. During a Brookings Institution Panel last month, Deborah Lee James, a former Secretary of the Air Force in the Obama Administration, said the military’s top brass doesn’t support President Donald Trump’s plan to create a Space Force.
The Space Force would be the first new military branch since the Air Force was created in 1947 and would be meant to be equal to the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard. Vice President Pence said the Space Force would take over already existing space operations and transferring employees. Vice President Pence said the Administration would want the branch up and running by 2020. But, it faces one big obstacle – the Space Force would need approval from Congress before it could become a new military branch.
“Now the time has come to write the next great chapter in the history of our armed forces, to prepare for the next battlefield where America’s best and bravest will be called to deter and defeat a new generation of threats to our people and to our nation,” Pence said. “The time has come to establish the United States Space Force.”
President Trump tweeted his support shortly after the announcement, “Space Force all the way!”
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Write to Gina Martinez at gina.martinez@time.com