Trump expected to move Space Command headquarters out of Colorado in his ‘first week’ – Washington Examiner

Space Command, separate from the Trump-created Space Force, has been the center of a yearslong controversy about whether to put its headquarters in Colorado or Alabama. Trump has favored the deep-red Alabama, while Biden favored the deep-blue Colorado. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) told Mobile radio FM Talk 106.5 that Trump would settle the dispute as one of his first moves in office.

“President Trump said in the campaign that he was going to reverse that decision if elected,” he said, referring to Biden’s decision to move the headquarters to Colorado. “But I knew he would because if you remember, not only did Alabama win two nationwide competitions, but President Trump’s secretary of the Air Force recommended Huntsville, President Biden’s secretary of the Air Force recommended Huntsville, and then Biden took it away for political reasons.”

“But it’s going to be a big point now because President Trump’s already announced it, and I think you’ll see in the first week that he’s in office, he’ll sign an executive order reversing Biden’s directive,” he continued. “And we will start construction next year in Huntsville.”

The office of Rep.-elect Jeff Crank (R-CO) expressed its opposition to the prospect.

“He’s definitely against the move,” a spokesman for Crank told the Washington Examiner.

Speaking with Al.com, Crank pledged to “resist any attempt” to move the headquarters to Alabama. He also issued some rare criticism of the president-elect by an elected Republican.

“With Donald Trump, you never know,” he said. “He changes his positions and his stance on issues by the day, and sometimes by the hour. If he wants to build out the Space Force and Space Command and have it meet the national security moment and our threats, then he will keep it here.”

Another Colorado Republican, Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO) also defended keeping the base in Colorado.

“Today’s USSPACECOM [full operational capability] announcement is the pinnacle of more than four years of hard work by General Raymond, General Dickinson, and our Guardians,” he said in a statement last year. “This achievement continues to show that Colorado Springs is the right location for USSPACECOM for our nation’s readiness. I am confident our Guardians will do what is necessary to maintain the highest levels of readiness to counter our adversaries’ malign ambitions in space. Our nation and its Allies are counting on it.”

The Biden administration always defended its move to keep the headquarters in Colorado Springs as a purely national security-focused move, without any political considerations. Its main argument was the perceived threat to readiness.

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A senior White House official told the Colorado Springs Gazette last year that Biden primarily considered the “impact a move would have to operational readiness to confront space-enabled threats during a critical time in this dynamic security environment. U.S. Space Command headquarters will achieve ‘full operational capability’ at Colorado Springs later this month. Maintaining the headquarters there maintains operational readiness and ensures no disruption to its mission or to its personnel.”

A senior administration official told the Washington Examiner at the time of Biden’s decision that a new site in Alabama would not open until “the early to mid-2030s.”