President Trump recently posted a photo of the moon on Truth Social with the text “The Moon is Ours,” reviving a once-held claim that the United States owns the celestial body.
Unwittingly or not, the assertion violates the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, which the U.S. helped draft and which was signed by more than 100 other countries.
The treaty in question explicitly states that outer space and celestial bodies are not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, use, occupation, or any other means.
Minutes before making the claims, Trump shared what appeared to be AI-generated images of new U.S. Space Force uniforms in a sleek Black hue, describing the color palette as “space gray, midnight black, silver gray, and satin black,” complete with shoulder and collar insignias, sleeve patches, and a belt.
The imagery, of course, drew immediate comparisons online to Star Wars, with users noting the “Imperial March” and “Imperial army” aesthetics.
The same posting run also included a map of New Mexico with “Mexico” crossed out in red and replaced with “America.” Whether that’s a real proposal is unclear.
While such social media posts serve as potent political messaging, they lack the legal authority to actually alter state names or status.
A trend of renaming
The administration’s renaming of geographical landmarks has been a recurring theme lately.
On Aug. 27, Trump announced from the Oval Office that he had formally submitted paperwork to rename Lake Ontario “Lake America,” amid an escalating trade dispute with Canada.
The name can be traced back 400 years to the Wendat (also known as Huron-Wendat) language word Ontari’io, which means “the lake is beautiful” and is older than either country.
Grand Chief Pierre Picard of the Wendat Nation, an indigenous First Nation of the Wendat people in Quebec, accused Trump of trying to eradicate their history in favor of political branding. “Outraged, appalled, shocked: there are no other words to describe how I feel following President Trump’s decision to rename Lake Ontario ‘Lake America,'” Picard wrote.
Sources: U.S. State Dept. (Archived), White House, The Star, Truth Social (Archived), The Chronicle Journal, Washington Examiner, Irish Star