President Donald Trump’s newly proposed Space Force uniform has sparked comparisons to Nazi military attire as the science fiction movie Starship Troopers inspired the design.
On Jan. 13, Space Force released updated dress and appearance guidance as part of a policy known as SPFI 36-2903 that was described at the time as “a significant step in establishing the service’s unique culture and visual identity.” The new uniform was designed to replace the modified Air Force uniform that Guardians had worn since the service’s inception.
Trump created the Space Force in 2019 during his first administration. The service falls under the Department of Defense (DOD) and is the smallest of the major branches, with an authorized end strength of 10,400 in Fiscal Year 2026. The service is in charge of securing U.S. space interests.
Trump posted an AI graphic on Sunday on Truth Social depicting the “next generation” Space Force service dress uniform, which showed dark peaked caps, leather boots and silver belt buckles. He did not clarify when he wanted the uniform to be released and how it would be implemented.
The graphic said it was “inspired by the discipline and functionality of the Starship Trooper uniform” and “modernized for the guardians of the space domain.”
Some were quick to note how Starship Troopers has Nazi connotations. Starship Troopers is a 1997 satirical sci-fi action movie directed by Paul Verhoeven, who grew up in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands.
In 2022, Verhoeven told The Guardian that the movie was about American politics and “fascists who aren’t aware of their fascism.” At the time, movie reviewers said the uniform in the movie was comparable to the Nazi uniform.
Military.com reached out to the White House for comment.
Trump also posted a separate AI image depicting him at the lever of a Space Force aircraft, with two mushroom clouds detonating on Earth behind him.
‘Starship Troopers’ and 1930s Germany Connections
Starship Troopers offered a futuristic take and a battle of good and evil between Earth’s Terran Federation and alien “bugs”, an insect-like alien race.
Verhoeven reportedly cast multiple attractive female actors as a nod to Leni Riefenstahl’s Nazi propaganda films, which depicted square-jawed Aryan youth, per The Guardian.
The movie also routinely features propaganda footage disguised as news reports.
Actor Neil Patrick Harris, who portrayed a psychic military intelligence officer in the nearly 30-year-old film, wears a black uniform explicitly styled after Nazi SS attire. Previous reporting has indicated that Harris was known on set as “Doogie Himmler,” melding his former Doogie Howser, M.D. character melded with Heinrich Himmler.
“I borrowed from the films of Leni Riefenstahl to show that these soldiers were like something out of Nazi propaganda,” Verhoeven wrote in The Guardian in 2018. “I even put one in an SS uniform. But no one noticed.”
In a previous interview in 2014, Verhoeven said, “If I tell the world that a right-wing, fascist way of doing things doesn’t work, no one will listen to me.
“So, I’m going to make a perfect fascist world: everyone is beautiful, everything is shiny, everything has big guns and fancy ships, but it’s only good for killing…” he added.
Space Force Uniform
The Space Force has existing rules pertaining to how its guardians dress.
It released a rulebook telling enlisted guardians what they are allowed to wear and how they’re supposed to look in uniform in August 2025, six years after Trump established the service.
The rulebook, presented in a 114-page document, mirrored most of the guidelines that the Air Force sets for airmen. However, it allowed hair that touches “the ears”, unlike in the Air Force’s guidelines.
President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
It also said Space Force guardians can wear certain “mission area” patches on their uniforms as well as duty identifier patches.
The Space Force policy provided Guardians with a minimum of 12 months’ notice to transition once a mandatory wear date was established.
Like the Air Force, the Space Force instruction told guardians that “beards are not authorized unless a guardian had received an approved medical profile or religious accommodation waiver by an appropriate authority.”
Trump is also looking to increase the size of the Space Force. In July, the service announced that it would be offering new recruits a $25,000 signing bonus if they agree to serve at least eight years’ active duty. It’s part of an effort to double member size in the next five years.
In August, Trump signed an executive order launching the process of establishing a U.S. Space Academy, a federal institution to teach new Space Force guardians alongside NASA engineers, scientists and other federal space professionals.
UPDATED 1:13 p.m. ET, 9/8/26: This story was updated with additional information.
