President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that Space Command will move from Colorado Springs to Alabama, citing Colorado‘s mail-in elections as playing a role in the decision.
Space Command protects the country’s interests in space, and its headquarters employs 1,700 troops across the service branches. It is separate from the Space Force, the youngest military service branch.
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“This decision will help America defend and dominate the high frontier,” Trump said.
He noted that Huntsville is expected to play a large role in developing the new missile defense system called Golden Dome. Space Command will have a role in the Golden Dome once it is operational because it is expected to rely on satellite technology.
Trump went on to say that Colorado’s mail-in voting leads to automatically crooked elections and that played “a big role” in moving the command. Colorado mails out ballots and allows voters to mail them back in, return them to drop boxes, or return them in person. Colorado also runs in-person voting centers for those who wish to cast a ballot in person.
Secretary of State Jena Griswold and Attorney General Phil Weiser pushed back on Trump’s statements on the safety of the state’s elections.
“Trump continues to spread lies and misinformation about our elections, and now he’s targeting Colorado directly. Colorado elections are safe and secure, and the nation’s gold standard,” Griswold said.
Weiser responded that the statement was inappropriate.
“It’s wholly inappropriate and legally suspect for the president to decide the location of Space Command (headquarters) based on how Colorado exercises its power under the U.S. Constitution to run our elections and our mail voting system,” he said. Even before Trump’s announcement, Weiser said his office was preparing to sue, saying the Trump administration should not play political games with national readiness.
However, former President Joe Biden also made a unilateral decision in 2023 to keep the base in Colorado Springs.
Tuesday’s decision was expected, and Alabama lawmakers had touted it was on the way since Trump took office.
The president gave a nod to Alabama’s lobbying efforts, joking that perhaps now they will stop calling him.
“They really wanted it badly and they got it,” Trump said. The new command is expected to bring “billions” in investment to Alabama, said Trump, who was surrounded by Alabama lawmakers in the Oval Office.
Previously, Rep. Dale Strong (R-AL) has said the move could bring 3,700 jobs to the state. Trump did not outline a timeline for the move. Experts have previously told the Denver Gazette such a move could take years.
Colorado’s congressional delegation sent out a united bipartisan statement shortly after Trump’s speech, saying it would hurt national security.
“Moving Space Command sets our space defense apparatus back years, wastes billions of taxpayer dollars, and hands the advantage to the converging threats of China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. The Department of Defense Inspector General’s office has reported multiple times that moving the Command will impede our military’s operational capability for years,” the statement said.
Rep. Jeff Crank (R-CO) said in a post on X that he was certain the Space Force’s missions in Colorado Springs would expand and the region’s military installations would play an integral role in the Golden Dome.
“I continue to have productive discussions with the administration to minimize the impact on our community. I am confident that when the dust settles, our community will have more jobs and more Department of Defense missions than today,” he said.
Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) struck a different tone saying that the move will hurt, although he expects the aerospace industry in the state to continue to grow. He also promised to continue to “fight this decision every step of the way.”
It is expected to be an uphill fight, in part because Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) is the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, who blocked funding for a permanent headquarters building in Colorado Springs.
During the announcement, Alabama lawmakers promoted the benefits that moving the command will have, including cost savings. An Air Force analysis has found that Huntsville had the lowest one-time and recurring costs of all the locations considered but Colorado posed the lowest operational risk.
It could cost $1.2 billion to put in a new headquarters building in Alabama, and rebuilding specialized communications infrastructure could cost $2 billion to $3 billion, the Denver Gazette reported in 2022. Previously, Redstone Arsenal had set aside 60 acres of raw land for Space Command.
Those in favor of keeping the command in Colorado also worried civilians might not move to Alabama, but Trump said he was not concerned about that.
Investing in the command and space capabilities is key, military leaders say, because America’s main rivals Russia and China are doing the same.
Since 2015, China has grown its presence in space by 1,000%, with 1,094 active satellites as of January 2025, Space Command leader Gen. Stephen Whiting said in written congressional testimony.
Space is already a key battleground, Maj. Gen. James Smith, commander of Space Training and Readiness Command, told a graduating class of new Space Force officers last week.
In April, a Chinese commercial company targeted U.S. warships in the Red Sea, and in May, Russian hackers replaced TV from a Ukrainian satellite with footage of a military parade as a form of intimidation, he said.
Colorado had offered Space Command an ecosystem with numerous national security and aerospace experts.
TRUMP TO MOVE SPACE COMMAND HQ FROM COLORADO TO HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA
At the end of last year, the industry included over 2,000 aerospace businesses that employed more than 55,000 people, according to the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade.
The industry is also expected to get “supercharged” following Trump’s announcement his administration expects to spend billions on Golden Dome.