President Donald Trump signaled urgency for a Space Force branch of the military on Monday while signing a funding bill for America’s defense.
“It is not enough to merely have an American presence in space, we must have American dominance in space,” he said.
The president signed a $716 billion appropriations bill for FY 2019 at Fort Drum in the state of New York, noting that it would help advance the technological advances quickly.
“We will be so far ahead of them in a short period of time, your head will spin,” he said.
Trump warned that other foreign countries were already weaponizing space by developing tools to disrupt American operations.
“I’ve seen things, you don’t even want to see what they are doing and how advanced they are,” he said. “We’ll be catching them very shortly.”
Trump warned that China launched a military division to address military operations in space.
“Just like the air and the land and the sea, space has become a warfighting domain,” Trump said.
The military troops cheered in response to the mention of Space Force.
“Gotta get it Joe!” he said, pointing out Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joe Dunford. “Right Joe? Right?”