00:00Republicans, and these are Republicans, great Republicans. I want to thank you all for being here
00:04for this important announcement, seven years in the making. As you know, this has been going on
00:09for a long period of time, and I am thrilled to report that the U.S. Space Command headquarters
00:16will move to the beautiful locale of a place called Huntsville, Alabama,
00:24Alabama, forever to be known from this point forward as Rocket City. Okay, so Huntsville,
00:31Alabama, we love Alabama. I only won it by about 47 points. I don't think that influenced my decision
00:39though, right? That didn't, right? But we had a lot of competition for this, and Alabama is getting it,
00:46Huntsville in particular, so congratulations, everybody. Katie, congratulations. This will
00:52result in more than 30,000 Alabama jobs, and probably much more than that, and hundreds of
00:57millions of dollars of investment, and that's billions because it can't be millions. It's
01:01billions and billions of dollars. Most importantly, this decision will help America defend and dominate
01:07the high frontier, as they call it. I want to thank Secretary Pete Hegseth. He's doing a fantastic job,
01:14and Secretary of the Air Force Troy Mink. Troy, thank you very much. Great job you're doing, Troy.
01:20Okay. This is such a big deal. This is one that everybody wanted to know. What are you doing?
01:26I also want to thank Senators Katie Britt, and I want to give my condolences. Your grandmother,
01:33her grandmother just passed away. She was 100, right? 100, and she loves you, Mr. President.
01:36Well, and she was very proud of you. Thank you very much. Very, very proud of you, so thank you, Katie.
01:41Wonderful woman. She must have been. To produce you indirectly,
01:44I can tell you she had to be. Tommy Tuberville, who's a great coach, and I won't say anything
01:53about what happened with Alabama football this weekend, but you're not used to that, right?
01:59You're not used to that. But Tommy, Auburn one is right. So you're happy. Tommy's been a great
02:07senator, as you know, and a fantastic guy all around. He was also a tremendous coach. House Armed
02:14Services Committee Chair, Mike Rogers. Thank you, Mike. Where's Mike? Mike, thank you very much.
02:20Doing great, Mike. Representatives Barry Moore, all great friends, Robert Aderholt, Gary Palmer,
02:26and Dale Strong. Thank you all very much, fellas. We appreciate it. In my first term,
02:31we created and I created a thing called Space Force. So important. You know, we were losing
02:38the race in space very badly to China and to Russia, and now we're far and away number one in space,
02:46and reestablished Space Com with a mission to protect American space assets and detect any threat
02:54to our homeland. We initially selected Huntsville for the Space Com headquarters, yet those plans were
03:01wrongfully obstructed by the Biden administration. And as you know, they moved them to a different
03:07locale. And today we're moving forward with what we want to do and the place that we want to have
03:13this. And this will be there for hopefully hundreds of years. That's where it's going to be.
03:19I will say I want to thank Colorado. The problem I have with Colorado, one of the big problems,
03:25they do mail-in voting. They went to all mail-in voting. So they have automatically crooked elections.
03:31And we can't have that. When a state is for mail-in voting, that means they want dishonest elections
03:37because that's what that means. So that played a big factor also. In Huntsville Space Com will play
03:44a key role in building the Golden Dome, as you know. That's going to be a big thing. Everybody wants
03:49to be a participant in it. Missile Defense Shield, we're going to be having a Golden Dome that the likes
03:56of which nobody's ever seen before. The finest, the best. And by the way, Canada called. They want
04:00to be a part of it. And that'll be great. But Canada wants very much to be included in
04:06that. And we're going to work something out with them, I hope. It will also ensure that
04:10our technological capabilities, of which we're way ahead of anybody else, there's nobody close,
04:17remain unmatched, long into the future. So I'd like to ask Secretary Hegseth to say a
04:22few words. He was very much a part of it. And really, everybody behind me was. Every one of
04:27these people would call me and lobby me. I said, Katie, I don't want to talk to you anymore. I know,
04:32I know what you want. She said, that's right, sir. That's what I want. And they got their way. So I just
04:39want to congratulate. These are really special people. They're politicians in many ways, but they're
04:45great patriots. I think even more so than politicians. So they fought very hard to get it. And it's an honor to
04:50give it to Huntsville. Pete, say a few words, please. Thank you, Mr. President. As usual, right
05:00place, right time, for the right reason. In your first administration, you established the Space
05:05Force at a time when we knew we had to be looking to that domain of space. You also reestablished
05:10SpaceCom to ensure that priority was put in place. And you, through the Air Force, independently
05:16identified that Huntsville, Alabama was the right place to put it. For other reasons,
05:20in the next administration under Biden, they decided to move it somewhere else. Well,
05:24during that time, the DOD Inspector General, the Government Affairs Office, they did their
05:29own assessments. And where did they say SpaceCom should go? Huntsville, Alabama. So what you're
05:34doing today, Mr. President, is restoring it to precisely where it should be based on what the Space
05:39Force, the Air Force, your leadership believes, will give us strategic advantage in the future.
05:44That is Huntsville, Alabama. We are way ahead in space, but this will ensure we stay leaps
05:50and bounds ahead, because that's the most important domain. Whoever controls the skies
05:54will control the future of warfare. And, Mr. President, today, you're ensuring that happens.
05:58Thank you. Thank you very much. Katie, would you like to say something?
06:04Mr. President, we are grateful for your leadership on this and restoring Space Command to its rightful
06:10home in Huntsville, Alabama. This delegation has worked together, both chambers, both parties,
06:16to make sure that Huntsville was the place that Space Command called home. As was mentioned,
06:22obviously, the Biden administration chose to make this political. What we want to do is put the safety
06:26and security of Americans first. We want to make sure that our warfighter is put first. And we want
06:33to make sure that America continues to lead. And today, Mr. President, you've allowed that to happen.
06:38Thank you. Thank you very much. Tommy, please. Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. This is a great
06:44day for our country, not just for our state of Alabama. We need help in our military. We need to
06:53catch up. And as Secretary has said, we're not behind in space, but we know where we're at,
07:01and we need to expound on that. Now, this move will save the taxpayers $480 million. It's not
07:12going to cost more. It's going to cut $480 million. We have the plans intact. It'll be behind a secure
07:19wall in Huntsville, Alabama at Redstone Arsenal. We have 40,000 people there. We have the FBI there.
07:24We have missile defense there. We have NASA, Blue Origin, and SpaceX. It is the perfect place for
07:32space command. I would tell you today, and again, I've spoke with the president for the last three
07:36or four years about this. If I thought it needed to go somewhere else because I understand the
07:41security of our country, I'd be for that. But the best place for space command is Huntsville,
07:47Alabama, because what we have and what it means to this country is going to be so important. So
07:53thank you, Mr. President, for this. And we look forward to building a huge space command and
07:58having the Donald J. Trump Space Command Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
08:02Mr. President, thank you. I'll be very brief here. I lobbied the president hard to put it in Ohio,
08:14but he said these people behind us, these Alabamas are just too powerful and too persuasive.
08:19And so it's in Alabama. But as Tommy said, this is exactly the right place for space
08:23force and space command. I think Americans ought to appreciate and ought to appreciate
08:26the fact that you can't win the battle of the future unless you control the skies.
08:32The cyber security, the communications, the entire infrastructure of the battle in the 21st
08:37century will be in space. So it was a visionary move in the first administration for the president
08:42to set up space force. And I think an equally visionary move to make sure the space force
08:46is right where it should be in Huntsville, Alabama. Thank you, sir.
08:48Thank you very much. Gentlemen, anybody want to say anything? Would you like to say?
08:52Mr. President, another promise made, another promise kept. You think about it. Redstone Arsenal
08:59is critical to national security. The president said when you were the 45th president, let's do what's
09:04right for national security. And today that's exactly what we're doing. It's not because of this or that.
09:10It's because it's right for national security. You think of the 21 categories that were evaluated
09:15to determine what was best for national security. All indicators pointed back to Huntsville, Alabama
09:21and Redstone Arsenal. We have the right people at the right place at the right time.
09:26Mr. President, on behalf of the people of the 5th Congressional District and all of Alabama,
09:30thank you for keeping your word. Absolutely.
09:33Thank you very much. Anybody? Let me just say, Mr. President, I want to say thank you.
09:39And thank you for doing this because it was the right thing to do. All the, when they looked at all
09:45the numbers, Huntsville was the place to go. And like you say, it was unfortunately pulled out,
09:51but you made it right. So I want to just say thank you again for a grateful nation and to the state
09:57of Alabama. We're very grateful. Thank you and God bless. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President.
10:06Throughout history, militaries has always understood that whoever could hold the high ground,
10:11held the advantage. Space is the ultimate high ground. And what we're doing with moving the
10:16space command to Huntsville is absolutely critical to our maintaining dominance in that sphere. And it
10:22goes hand in hand with what we're trying to do with the Golden Dome and missile defense to defend
10:26against anyone else who tries to enter that sphere. So thank you, Mr. President. Thank you
10:30very much. Please. Thank you, Mr. President. And obviously, national defense is a huge issue. And
10:36when you look at the scores, Alabama was number one. And for political reasons, it was moved out of
10:40our state. But Mr. President, thank you for making priorities of defense and the warfighter and the
10:45safety of this nation. And in the big, beautiful bill, that Golden Dome will be built in Huntsville,
10:49Alabama. And we're grateful for that. Thank you.
10:55Listen, I, as chairman of the Armed Services Committee, I care very much about what's most
10:59important for our national security. And the president held a nationwide competition to determine
11:05where we should have this command. If you all remember, at the end of that competition where
11:11Alabama came in first, there was a lot of complaints from the other states who did not place well.
11:15He said, we'll do it over with new criteria to accommodate your concerns. Alabama came in first
11:22in that second competition. His secretary of the Air Force reviewed the results, said it was fair,
11:28and the president named Huntsville. It was the Biden administration that decided to make it political,
11:35even though his own secretary of the Air Force said it was a fair competition and it should be in
11:40Huntsville. So I want you to know I appreciate this president standing up and being strong and saying he's
11:45going to make this right and put it where it rightfully belongs, and that's Huntsville, Alabama.
11:49Thank you very much. Good job.
11:52So thank you all very much. You are going to leave me alone now. You're not going to call me anymore and
11:58talk about this subject, right? You promise? They'll start something else. But I just want to
12:05congratulate you. It's a very big deal. When you come out and when you leave the room, you'll see that
12:09we just, over the last few minutes, literally shot out a boat, a drug-carrying boat, a lot of drugs in
12:18that boat. And you'll be seeing that and you'll be reading about that. It just happened moments ago.
12:24And our great general, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who's been so incredible, including what took
12:34place in Iran, knocking out potential nuclear power for a long time to come. I think within a month,
12:42they would have had it if we didn't do what we did. But he gave us a little bit of a briefing.
12:49And you'll see. And there's more where that came from. We have a lot of drugs pouring into our country,
12:54coming in for a long time. And we just, these came out of Venezuela and coming out very heavily from
13:01Venezuela. A lot of things are coming out of Venezuela. So we took it out and you'll get to
13:06see that after this, after this meeting is over. Do you have?
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