President Trump on Sunday revealed a proposed new look for the United States Space Force, with uniform designs that appeared to take cues from the sci-fi action film “Starship Troopers.”
In a post on Truth Social, the commander-in-chief shared a mock-up of the sleek black-and-gray attire, describing the concept as “inspired by the discipline of the Starship Trooper uniform” while being “modernized for the guardians of the space domain.”
The reference points to the 1997 cult favorite, adapted from Robert Heinlein’s militaristic novel, which imagines a 23rd-century human civilization locked in a brutal interstellar war with giant insect-like enemies called the Arachnids.
The Space Force uniform reveal quickly drew reactions online, where users noted that the design also seemed to echo the sharp, authoritarian styling of Imperial officers from “Star Wars.”
“SWEET your [sic] going galactic empire! Let the Force be with you lol!” one social media user joked in response.
“Looking a whole like like Stars Wars Imperial Army Officer uniform,” another agreed.
“Sorry, but that looks like a Star Wars Evil Empire uniform,” a third quipped.
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“Starship Troopers” director Paul Verhoeven has said that the movie, which stars Casper Van Dien and Neil Patrick Harris, was meant to be a satire of a “fascist utopia.”
“I decided to make a movie about fascists who aren’t aware of their fascism,” Verhoeven, who grew up in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands near a German military base, told The Guardian in 2018.
Trump revealed the new military digs during a massive social media blitz over the weekend, during which he also shared an image of the moon with the words “The Moon is Ours,” and the American flag to the side.
Trump established the United States Space Force (USSF) in Dec. 2019 during his first term in the White House.
Last month, the president announced plans to create a new military Space Academy to train the next generation of civilian and military aerospace experts.
“You think of West Point, and you think of Annapolis, and you think of the Air Force Academy and you think of the Coast Guard Academy. It’s great. They’re all great, but we’re going to have now a Space Force [academy].”
The USSF earlier this year detailed its plans to defend US space capabilities and achieve “space superiority” in a manual titled “Space Warfighting: A Framework for Planners.”
The space-faring military branch defined space superiority” as having a “degree of control that allows forces to operate at a time and place of their choosing without prohibitive interference from space or counterspace threats, while also denying the same to an adversary.”