Donald Trump vows to create Space Force national guard if elected president in November

Former President Donald Trump on Monday vowed to go beyond his creation of the United States' Space Force if he returns to the White House in November, by creating a specific national guard to support it.

Trump created the Space Force in 2019, which is intended to protect U.S. assets in space from foreign threats. The Space Force is the sixth official branch of the United States' military. 

The former president made the promise to create a Space Force national guard while speaking at the National Guard Association of the U.S. conference in Detroit.

“One of my proudest achievements in my first term was to create Space Force, the first new branch of the armed forces in over 70 years; it’s a big deal,” Trump said, per The Hill. “Now that Space Force is up and running, I agree with your leadership — you want this very badly — but I agree that the time has come to create a Space National Guard as the primary combat reserve of the U.S. Space Force.”

“So as president, I will sign historic legislation creating a Space National Guard,” he added.

The comment was met with cheers from the audience. 

The pledge also comes after the Biden administration asked Congress to override a current law to allow hundreds of Air National guardsmen to shift to into the Space Force without approval from their state's governor. 

The Biden administration proposed shifting approximately 1,000 Air National Guard members into the Space Force in April. But the request has faced heavy backlash from the governors and dozens of lawmakers.

Trump also pledged on Monday to create a defense system that was similar to Israel's Iron Dome. The dome protects Israel against short range rockets by intercepting them.

“We’re going to build a great Iron Dome for missile defense around our nation," Trump said. "Other countries have said Israel has it. You know, [former President] Ronald Reagan wanted this many years ago, but we didn’t have the technology at that point. But now we have the technology."

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just the News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.