How likely is it that Colorado loses Space Command under Trump?

Colorado’s fight to keep Space Command will be an “uphill battle,” said former Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers, who alongside the state’s top political leaders vowed last week to push back on any effort by President-elect Donald Trump to move its headquarters from Colorado Springs to Alabama. 

The yearslong tug-of-war over the military base appeared to be far from over after a Republican Alabama congressman, Mike Rogers, told a Mobile radio station last week that Trump committed on the campaign trail to reverse President Joe Biden’s decision to permanently place the headquarters in Colorado Springs and that he was confident Trump would follow through on the promise within his first week of office.

Suthers was mayor of Colorado Springs when the city put in a bid to host the headquarters, which was temporarily based at Peterson Space Force Base in 2019. That was the year Trump re-established Space Command, which was initially created in 1985 and then dissolved in 2002.

Suthers has criticized Trump’s decision to move the base to Alabama in his final days of office, arguing it was a wholly political act, as have Gov. Jared Polis and many members of the state’s congressional delegation. 

Colorado voted overwhelmingly for Biden during the 2020 election, while Alabama backed Trump by a large margin. 

“We’ll put up a fight — I guarantee you that — but I think it’s going to be a long, long struggle here, and its Vegas odds would probably not be with us,” Suthers, who previously served as Colorado attorney general and as the state’s U.S. attorney, said Thursday in an interview with The Colorado Sun.

There is no appeal process if Trump makes the basing decision to move the headquarters again, but Congress can dispute how federal dollars are allocated.

“With the Republicans having both (the Senate and Congress), that’s probably more problematic than it would be if they did not have both houses,” Suthers said. “But obviously we can hope that some cooler fiscal heads will prevail and not want to spend five to 10 billion to move this thing.”

For Suthers, who has been angling for years for the state to be Space Command’s permanent home, Rogers’ comments last week came as no surprise. But they pushed several members of the Colorado delegation, including two of the state’s newest Republican congressmen, to promise they would fight to keep the command.

“It seems to me that our strategy is pretty simple: No. 1, we have to convince the Trump administration that in a second term, there’s really no reason to be political about this. And you know, let’s make a decision that’s in the interests of national security and the American taxpayer,” Suthers said. “And that clearly weighs in favor of leaving it in Colorado Springs.

“Am I naive enough to think that those sorts of arguments will prevail this time when they didn’t in the previous Trump administration? I don’t know, but certainly that effort is going to be made.”

In early 2020, Suthers spoke with Trump as he got off Air Force One and made the case that keeping Space Command in Colorado Springs would benefit national security and American taxpayers.

Standing on the tarmac at Peterson Air Force Base, Trump asked a four-star general whether headquarters should stay in Colorado Springs.

“He said, ‘Yes, sir. Right here,’ and pointed to the ground,” Suthers recalled.

Then Trump asked Suthers the likelihood he would win Colorado’s electoral votes in the upcoming election.

“Being a diplomatic guy, I said, ‘Uncertain.’ And he said, ‘Well, I think I’m going to wait and see after the election, before I make my decision,’ which pretty much told you which we’re in store for,” Suthers said. 

On Jan. 13, 2021, with seven days left in office, the Trump administration named Huntsville as the preferred location for Space Command’s permanent headquarters. 

Colorado’s delegation pushed back on Trump’s basing decision the first time he chose Alabama, working with allies to push for investigations by the General Accountability Office, Congress’ nonpartisan investigative arm, and the inspector general. The GAO found the Trump administration’s headquarters selection process was flawed, in part because it went contrary to the recommendation of top military officials. The Office of the Inspector General in the Department of Defense, however, found the decision reasonable.

Huntsville has a long aerospace history. Some of the earliest missiles used in the nation’s space programs, including the Saturn V rocket, are from there and the city is home to the Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command.

“The bottom line is simple, the Redstone Region is the most natural choice to become home to such an important mission for our country,” Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said after Trump’s decision. 

Last week, Colorado’s top political leaders stressed the negative implications of moving the base. 

In an interview with Colorado Public Radio on Wednesday, Polis said he had not spoken with Trump yet, but said he intended to lobby, again, for keeping the command in Colorado permanently.

“It was already the subject of my very first conversations when I congratulated Congressman-elect (Jeff) Crank and Congressman-elect (Jeff) Hurd and Congressman-elect (Gabe) Evans,” Polis said in the interview. 

“It’d be an incredible disruption for purely political purposes, which I’m confident that both Republicans and Democrats in Colorado will stand with the U.S. military to oppose the relocation of the Space Command.”

Crank, who was just elected to represent Colorado’s 5th Congressional District, which includes Peterson Space Force Base, vowed he would join the fight.

“Americans want a strong military and national security, and that’s why they overwhelmingly elected Donald Trump as our next president. To maintain operational readiness, U.S. Space Command headquarters should remain at Peterson Space Force Base,” the Republican said in a written statement.

Crank declined an interview request through a spokesperson.

His predecessor, Doug Lamborn, said it would take “shaming” the Trump administration to realize Colorado’s the best choice.

“We have to make the case and shame them to realizing that this is bad for national security, it’s political, it’s a job’s program at best for one state, but that’s not what is good for our national security,” the former congressman said in an interview Thursday on radio station KVOR. “We have to have operational readiness, we have that right now.”

Democratic Rep. Jason Crow, a former Army Ranger who served three tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, said moving Space Command, which has reached full operational capability, would disrupt its operations and growth and put the country at risk.

“Colorado has the workforce and infrastructure to ensure its success,” Crow said in a statement Wednesday, adding he would work “relentlessly” with the state’s delegation to keep Space Command in its “rightful home” of Colorado. 

The Space Command was expected to have an enormous impact on Colorado Springs’ economy, with the potential growth in housing and retail markets, new tax revenue and the potential for new business expansions, city experts said.

A 2021 report by Colorado Springs Commerce & EDC estimated that the Space Command headquarters would employ about 1,400 people and add $450 million annually to the region’s economy. Funding for a new building was estimated to add between $500 million and $1 billion in military construction. 

A 2024 defense policy bill put a freeze on any projects funding construction of the headquarters until two government watchdog agencies evaluate Biden’s decision to keep it in Colorado, according to Defense News. Those reports, from the Defense Department inspector general and the GAO, are expected to be completed in December or January, Rogers, the Alabama congressman, said in a radio interview. 

Suthers estimated the command could funnel $1 billion to the economy each year. A relocation to Alabama would risk losing companies that are based in Colorado Springs solely to serve for Space Command, including defense contractors, he said. 

“Now, it could potentially be more than that annually, if there’s this type of defense contractor growth that I would expect and that would be lost if, in fact, Space Command would move,” he said.

If Trump orders the command to be moved to Alabama, it is unclear how long the relocation would take or what it might cost.

The longer operations continue in Colorado Springs, the better for Colorado, Suthers said. 

“Frankly, I think we’re past the point where it makes any sense whatsoever, but the longer, the more entrenched the capabilities are in Colorado Springs, and the more potentially disruptive it is to move it,” he said, adding that Ukrainians are depending on intelligence the U.S. is providing them through space observation.

Republican Rep.-elect Gabe Evans, who narrowly beat Democrat Yadira Caraveo in the race to represent Colorado’s 8th Congressional District, echoed Suthers’ commitment to keeping Space Command in Colorado Springs. 

“We have a robust thriving aerospace industry and we need to keep that in Colorado,” Evans, an Army veteran and former police officer, said at a news conference earlier this week. 

“So yeah, count me in. I’m Team Colorado on that one.” 

Colorado Sun staff writer Jesse Paul contributed to this report.