Trump's Latest Makeover Target? Space Force Uniforms.

After the bulldozer inchief and the redecorator in chief, the designer in chief? So it seems, judging from a Truth Social post from President Trump over the weekend in which he appeared to extend his desire to make over whatever catches his eye to military uniforms. Specifically, the service dress uniforms of the Space Force. Amid a series of posts showing New Mexico renamed 'New America' and George Washington visiting Trump in the Oval Office, the president included what appeared to be an A.I.-generated version of the 'next generation' Space Force outfits for his lunar generals. One in 'space gray' and 'midnight black' featured a Prussian collar, a belted tunic jacket and shiny knee-high black boots. Sound familiar? It would be easy to dismiss the post as simply one late-night boondoggle among many. But it is also telling. According to the post, the style was 'inspired by the dignity and functionality of the Starship Trooper uniform.' Given that 'Starship Troopers,' the 1997 Paul Verhoeven movie that was inspired by Robert Heinlein's 1959 book, starts with the phrase 'After the failure of democracy' and was meant as a sendup of totalitarianism, this was a provocative model to choose. Think sci-fi Hitler by way of Hollywood, and you will get the idea. Or think of it as a case of life imitating cartoon art imitating life. Or simply another example of the way the president is merging the pageantry of dictators and the big screen's schlocky past into a communications chimera that, in its lack of subtlety, may seem like a joke but taps into the totems of mass culture with viral intent. By cloaking the horrors of the past in the costumes of escapism, it normalizes them. Trump Administration: Live Updates Even if the proposed uniform was more fantasy than realism, many people online did not miss the connection between the look and its historical antecedents in Nazi Germany and fascist Italy and Spain. Especially when such comparisons were already drawn between the former Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino's preferred overcoat and the wardrobes of classic strongmen. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.