A face palm from Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Capt. Picard.
Paramount
Someone working for the US Space Force must be a Trekkie. Star Trek fans say a new logo is a direct ripoff of Star Trek’s Starfleet Command logo.
President Donald Trump revealed the new logo for the Space Force on Friday via Twitter.
After consultation with our Great Military Leaders, designers, and others, I am pleased to present the new logo for the United States Space Force, the Sixth Branch of our Magnificent Military! pic.twitter.com/TC8pT4yHFT
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 24, 2020
“After consultation with our Great Military Leaders, designers, and others, I am pleased to present the new logo for the United States Space Force, the Sixth Branch of our Magnificent Military!” Trump tweeted.
As soon as it was posted, eagle-eyed Star Trek fans responded, pointing out the logo’s similarities to the Starfleet Command logo. The arrow, the swirl around the arrow, the star background and text placement are almost identical.
In the Star Trek universe, Starfleet is the uniformed space force maintained by the United Federation of Planets as the principal branch that conducts deep-space exploration, research, defense, peacekeeping and diplomacy.
As expected, Star Trek fans — even Star Trek actor George Takei and Star Wars actor Mark Hamill — had a few things to say about the new design.
“There is nothing sacred any more,” George Takei tweeted.
Tweeted Mark Hamill, “Just another Star Trek rerun.”
“A whole lot of Trekkers with Starfleet bumper stickers are about to be charged with stolen valor,” a user tweeted, while another fan tweeted, “Look it was inevitable and we could do worse than emulating Starfleet.”
The Starfleet logo is actually based on the Space Force logo because Starfleet won’t be founded until 2130
— Jack Posobiec🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) January 24, 2020
Donald Trump decided to rip off his Space Force logo from Gene Roddenberry and Star Trek, one day after everyone just watched Star Trek Picard and got reminded of what the Starfleet logo looks like.
Trump is the world’s dumbest criminal, and it’s not even close.
— Palmer Report (@PalmerReport) January 24, 2020
The Starfleet fascination among space types in the military isn’t new; this was Space Command’s logo, which immediately preceeded Space Force pic.twitter.com/Ap3y5gHEWD
— Kelsey D. Atherton (@AthertonKD) January 24, 2020
We’d like to be Starfleet but we’re definitely the Cardassians
— oʇʇᴉɥɔɔǝʌ (@vecchitto) January 24, 2020
The Space Force didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Jan. 17, the US Space Force was mocked for revealing designs of camouflage uniforms, which made Star Wars fans wonder if they were for soldiers headed to the forest planet of Endor.
USSF officially launched in December 2019, when Trump signed into law the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act.
Watch this:
Will Trump’s Space Force really protect us all?
1:31
Originally published Jan. 24, 4:06 p.m. PT.