September 10, 2025 11:17 AM UTC

Colorado Republicans Have Already Caved on Space Command Relocation

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• by: Colorado Pols

When President Trump announced last week (again) that he was moving Space Command headquarters from Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs to Huntsville, Alabama, Colorado’s entire Congressional delegation responded in rare agreement on a joint statement condemning the decision and promising that the HQ location fight wasn’t finished.

Here’s what that statement from September 2 said in full:

“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.

“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.

“Space Command’s long-term presence in Colorado Springs has also created a large number of civilian businesses and workers on which the Command now relies. Those people will not simply move with the Command at the military’s whim. Many of them will leave the industry altogether, creating a disruption in the workforce that will take our national defense systems decades to recreate.

“Being prepared for any threats should be the nation’s top priority; a crucial part of that is keeping in place what is already fully operational. Moving Space Command would not result in any additional operational capabilities than what we have up and running in Colorado Springs now. Colorado Springs is the appropriate home for U.S. Space Command, and we will take the necessary action to keep it there.” [Pols emphasis]

Seems pretty unequivocal, right?

As it turns out, Colorado Republicans have a different definition of taking “necessary action” to keep Space Command HQ in our state.

As Caitlyn Kim reports for Colorado Public Radio, Republican Reps. Jeff “Bread Sandwich” Hurd (CO-03); Lauren Boebert (CO-04); Jeff Crank (CO-05); and Gabe Evans (CO-08) are already done pretending that they will make any sort of effort to oppose Dear Leader Trump:

After declaring the Colorado delegation was “united in fighting to reverse” President Trump’s decision to move Space Command headquarters out of Colorado Springs, Colorado’s congressional Republicans said late last week that they “are working with the Administration to minimize the impacts of this move.” [Pols emphasis]

In a glass-half-full statement as the news and its implications settled, the Republicans said they’re only expecting to lose 1,000 positions, instead of 1,700.

“This marks a significant improvement from the original projection and a positive outcome for our state. Further, important operational elements of Space Command will remain in Colorado Springs, preserving much of the economic driver for our region,” GOP Reps. Jeff Crank, Lauren Boebert, Gabe Evans and Jeff Hurd said in a statement Friday evening.

They added that the move will take years to complete and that during that time, the Defense Department’s “presence in Colorado is expected to continue its rapid growth,” including the number of Space Force personnel, which should outpace any loss.

Neat: Colorado is only going to lose 1,000 jobs instead of 1,700. Oh…and Space Command isn’t moving for a couple of years anyway. Victory!

We have office paper that doesn’t fold this easily.

Here’s Boebert’s glass-has-one-sip-left assessment:

When asked if the headquarters move was a done deal, Boebert told CPR News, “It seems that way.”

“It’s unfortunate to see Space Command go, but we will still have a presence in Colorado,” Boebert said. “A lot of Golden Dome opportunities there. The majority of Space Force is in Colorado, and that’s going to continue to grow. We’re not losing our defense and aerospace industries. I believe that there’s still many more opportunities for that, and we will continue to fight for more missions.”

Sure, we’re losing Space Command, but we have other stuff!

And what about Crank, the freshman lawmaker whose Colorado Springs district is currently home to Space Command?

Crank’s office did not respond to questions about if he would continue to fight the move, and if so, how.

Wow. Such bravery.

Signing onto letters or statements that they later ignore entirely has been the modus operandi of Colorado Republicans in 2025, with particularly embarrassing grandstanding from Hurd and Evans as the prime examples (Hurd, you may recall, signed onto TWO different letters pledging not to support cuts to Medicaid before he voted — twice — to support cuts to Medicaid). Colorado’s Republican Members of Congress have proved repeatedly now that they are all too happy to sign their name onto a letter or a joint statement on a given issue, but when the time comes to really get to work, they vanish like a Scooby Doo villain.

As we noted last week, President Trump’s prime motivation for moving Space Command HQ is very simple: Spite. Colorado voters have repeatedly refused to back Trump at the polls, and the Big Orange Guy is punishing our state for its disloyalty. Such naked political corruption is apparently understood by Boebert, who included a concerning — if absurd — comment about what comes next. As CPR notes:

[Boebert] added she’d also like to see more non-military federal offices relocate to red parts of Colorado, including potentially the BLM headquarters or “other federal offices out of Denver and into areas that actually support President Trump and aren’t going against his agenda.” [Pols emphasis]

What can Colorado expect next from Trump? If we want cool stuff, we need to get with the dictatorship program. If we don’t bow to the Dear Leader, perhaps he will instead withhold disaster relief money…or federal highway funds…or deploy the National Guard to harass Coloradans.

We know one thing: Colorado Republicans already have a pre-written letter of disagreement ready to sign.