Iconic astronaut Mark Kelly just blasted Trump’s “Space Force” in scathing rebuttal

A former NASA astronaut who has spent time on the International Space Station tore into the president this afternoon for his “redundant and wasteful” plan to create a “Space Force” and extend the destructive tentacles of American empire into the stars above.

Mark Kelly went on MSNBC and decried the president’s nonsensical decision, hammering home just how unwanted and unneeded a new branch of our already bloated and monstrously inefficient military really is.

The only person that I’ve heard say this is a fantastic idea is the commander in chief, the president of the United States. Everybody else says it’s redundant, it’s wasteful. There is a threat out there, but it’s being handled by the U.S. Air Force today, doesn’t make sense to build a whole other level of bureaucracy in an incredibly bureaucratic [Defense Department].”

His comment echo those made by his twin brother, Scott Kelly, who also spoke to MSNBC a few weeks ago and advised the president to deal with the wars we’re currently in before going around and starting any new ones.

“This Space Force is talking about some future, potentially almost scientific war that we may have to be a party of. How about we deal with the war we’re currently in? The cyber war that is, you know, trying to affect our democracy, the thing that’s most important to the United States, which is free and fair elections” said Kelly in an appearance on MSNBC.

Kelly was referring to the active efforts by the Russian Federation to electronically manipulate and interfere in the upcoming midterm elections on behalf of the Republican Party, as they did in the 2016 presidential election.

If anyone knows what he’s talking about when it comes to space, it’s the Kelly brothers. The last thing our military needs is more money to spend on ridiculous vanity projects like a “space force” when half of the American people can’t afford to pay rent or buy groceries.

Natalie Dickinson

Natalie is a staff writer for the Washington Press. She graduated from Oberlin College in 2010 and has been freelance blogging and writing for progressive outlets ever since.