U.S. President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office at the White House on September 2, 2025 in Washington, DC. At left is U.S. Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala. At right are Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump announced Tuesday the U.S. Space Command will permanently relocate to Huntsville, Alabama, vacating its temporary headquarters in Colorado.

The move reverts back to Trump’s plans during his first administration to locate the combatant command in Alabama to oversee Space Force, the military branch he created in 2019. 

Space Force headquarters has since operated out of Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs. The command’s location has been a yearslong political fight.

“As you know, this has been going on for a long period of time, and I am thrilled to report that the U.S. Space Command headquarters will move to the beautiful locale of a place called Huntsville, Alabama, forever to be known from this point forward as ‘Rocket City,’” said Trump, flanked by Alabama Republicans in the Oval Office Tuesday afternoon. 

“We love Alabama. I only won it by about 47 points. I don’t think that influenced my decision though,” he said. (Trump won Alabama’s nine Electoral College votes in November by 31 percentage points, according to The Associated Press. Former Vice President Kamala Harris won Colorado’s 10 Electoral College votes by 11 percentage points.)

Trump said his plans to root Space Command at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville were “wrongfully obstructed by the Biden administration.”

The Biden administration decided in July 2023 to keep Space Command in Colorado Springs to ensure “peak readiness in the space domain,” according to a Department of Defense Inspector General report released in April 2025. The IG’s report was inconclusive on why the Air Force did not push back on the decision, despite the department’s preference for Alabama.

“Today, we’re moving forward with what we want to do and the place that we want to have this, and this will be there for hopefully hundreds of years,” Trump said. “I will say, I want to thank Colorado. The problem I have with Colorado, one of the big problems, they do mail-in voting. They went to all mail-in voting, so they have automatically crooked elections.”

Since his election loss to Biden in 2020, Trump has repeated unfounded claims about mail-in ballots and their effect on elections.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said the president is “restoring (Space Command) to precisely where it should be.”

“Whoever controls the skies will control the future of warfare, and Mr. President, today you’re ensuring that happens,” Hegseth said.

Alabama Republicans rejoice over Space Command

Alabama’s Republican U.S. Sens. Tommy Tuberville and Katie Britt both praised the president as they stood beside him in the Oval Office.

“Mr. President, we are grateful for your leadership on this and restoring Space Command to its rightful home in Huntsville, Alabama,” Britt said, adding the accusation that “obviously the Biden administration chose to make this political.”

Tuberville said the move will save taxpayers $480 million. States Newsroom has not independently verified that figure, and the April IG report did not cite specific relocation costs. He also highlighted the presence of NASA in Huntsville as an advantage.

“I spoke with the president for the last three or four years about this. If I thought it needed to go somewhere else, because (of) the security of our country, I’d be for that. But the best place for Space Command is Huntsville, Alabama, because what we have and what it means to this country is going to be so important,” Tuberville said.

Lawsuit vowed by Colorado AG

But Colorado elected officials aren’t backing down. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, described the decision as “deeply disappointing” for his state and “a waste of taxpayer dollars.”

Colorado’s Attorney General Phil Weiser said in a statement Tuesday that he plans to take the administration to court over the “unlawful” relocation, which he described as “political games.”

“Moving Space Command Headquarters to Alabama is not only wrong for our national defense, but it’s harmful to hundreds of Space Command personnel and their families. These El Paso County residents are our neighbors. They relied on the federal government’s decision to keep Space Command HQ in Colorado Springs — they bought homes for their families, selected schools for their children, and have contributed to the local economy.” Weiser said. 

“The Colorado Attorney General’s Office has been preparing in the event the president made such an unlawful decision to move Space Command HQ. If the Trump administration takes this step — I’m prepared to challenge it in court.”

Colorado’s entire bipartisan congressional delegation released a statement Tuesday slamming the relocation announcement.

“Today’s decision to move U.S. Space Command’s headquarters out of Colorado and to Alabama will directly harm our state and the nation. We are united in fighting to reverse this decision. Bottom line—moving Space Command headquarters weakens our national security at the worst possible time,” according to the statement.

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media in the Oval Office at the White House on Sept. 2, 2025 in Washington, DC. Following days of speculation about his health from users on social media, President Trump made his first public appearance in a week to announce the moving of Space Command headquarters from Colorado to Alabama. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump spoke at length from the Oval Office on Tuesday, proving that he is in fact alive after rumors circulated online over the long holiday weekend that he might have died. 

Trump initially said he wasn’t aware of the speculation when asked about his “demise” by a Fox News reporter after the president announced he would move U.S. Space Command headquarters from Colorado to Alabama. 

“Really, I didn’t see that,” Trump said. “You know, I have heard, it’s sort of crazy but last week I did numerous news conferences. All successful. They went very well, like this is going very well. And then I didn’t do any for two days, and they said, ‘There must be something wrong with him.’ Biden wouldn’t do them for months. You wouldn’t see him.”

Trump then said that he had heard about the online speculation of his death, but that he didn’t realize how extensive the rumors were.

“No, I heard that. I get reports,” Trump said. “Now you knew I did an interview that lasted for about an hour and a half with somebody, and everybody saw. That was on one of your competitors. I did numerous shows, and also did a number of truths, long truths. I think, pretty poignant truths. No, I was very active over the weekend.”

Trump added a few moments later: “I didn’t hear that one. That’s pretty serious stuff.”

The rumors that Trump had potentially died began circulating online Friday but began dissipating on Saturday, Sunday and Monday after the group of reporters that follows the president around saw him walk into his golf club in Virginia each of those three days.