President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he is moving Space Force headquarters from Colorado to Huntsville, Alabama, citing his frustration with mail-in voting in Colorado as a “big factor” behind his decision to move the base. Members of Trump’s cabinet and the Alabama legislative delegation, meanwhile, emphasized the strategic importance of the relocation, accusing the Biden administration of politicizing the issue.
“We originally selected Huntsville for the Space Comm headquarters, but those plans were wrongfully obstructed by the Biden administration, and as you know, they moved them to a different local, and today we’re moving forward with what we want to do,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “I want to thank Colorado. The problem I have with Colorado, one of the big problems, is they do mail-in voting. They went to all mail-in voting, so they have automatically crooked elections.”
The announcement comes after the Biden administration, in 2023, reversed the first-term Trump administration’s decision to move the base to Huntsville, ultimately keeping it in its temporary location of Colorado Springs, Colorado.
At the time, General James Dickinson, former commander of the United States Space Command, convinced President Joe Biden of the decision, citing military readiness.
Every Colorado voter automatically receives a ballot in the mail and, according to the Colorado Secretary of State, 92 percent of voters cast their votes through the mail.
Trump has for years attacked mail-in voting as a vehicle for fraud and accused blue states of stealing the 2020 election from him by embracing the practice under the guise of Covid prevention. In recent weeks, Trump has repeatedly urged Republicans to pass legislation banning the practice nationwide, though the bans would likely have to be done state-by-state since the Constitution grants states power over the administration of elections.
Trump lost Colorado in the last election but won Alabama overwhelmingly. At one point during Tuesday’s announcement, Trump joked about moving the Space Force to Alabama to reward his political supporters.
While Trump repeatedly cited Colorado’s mail-in voting laws as a central factor in his decision to move Space Force, members of his cabinet and Alabama lawmakers emphasized the strategic importance of moving the agency to Alabama, accusing the Biden administration of politicizing the location of the agency’s headquarters.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, for example, pushed back on the Biden administration’s decision during his remarks in the Oval Office.
“During that time, the DOD inspector general, the government affairs office, they did their own assessments, and where did they say Space Comm should go? Huntsville, Alabama,” Hegseth said. “So what you’re doing today Mr. President is restoring it to precisely where it should be based on what the Space Force, the Air Force, your leadership believes will give us strategic advantage in the future.”
Senator Katie Britt (R., Ala.) echoed similar sentiments, saying that safety is of the utmost importance.
“The Biden administration chose to make this political. What we want to do is put the safety and security of Americans first,” Britt said. “We want to make sure that our warfighter, is put first. And we want to make sure that America continues to lead.”
The president did say, however, that the move “works because we have so much there,” an accreditation to strategy rather than political bias.
Trump said that five states wanted the base, but Alabama was the best location, people of Alabama are “great people,” and they fought harder for it than anyone else.
The switch will bring more than 30,000 jobs and save more than $480 million for taxpayers, according to the announcement.