- Last year, Vice President Mike Pence made an exciting announcement.

- The time has come to establish the United States Space Force.

(crickets chirping) - [Narrator] The audience was clearly too excited to clap, eagerly awaiting a detailed scientific explanation of what a space force is.

- A space force.

Incredible.

A powerful new rocket and gleaming new spaceships.

- [Voiceover] Space force!

- [Narrator] Yes, we're going to have incredible, powerful, gleaming rockets and not blow our space money, like Europe, on boring things like saving the planet.

It's nice to have leaders who recognize their most American duty.

- Turning science fiction into science fact.

- [Narrator] Science Fiction, a.k.a., the only type of science the administration should be supporting, was also the basis for the most glorious weapons program in U.S. history, conceived during the Cold War.

- What if free people could live secure in the knowledge that we could intercept and destroy strategic ballistic missiles.

- [Narrator] The Strategic Defense Initiative, which soon became known by the name of a popular movie.

No, not that movie.

- The Strategic Defense Initiative has been labeled, Star Wars.

- [Narrator] But even beyond Star Wars, Reagan was transforming before our eyes, from Cold warrior to Jedi warrior.

- Hmm, powerful you have become, Ronnie.

- [Narrator] This was one of his concerns.

- What if all of us in the world discovered that we were threatened from another planet?

- [Narrator] Reagan knew of what he spoke.

As a young man, he was on the cutting edge of defense research.

- The spy ring has designs on the greatest war weapon ever invented.

- [Narrator] And so began Reagan's life long love affair with fictitious weapons.

But by the early 80's, outer space seemed like old news.

Who could help Reagan make space sexy again?

- I'm Congressman Newt Gingrich, the Republican Co-Chairman of the Congressional Space Caucus.

- [Narrator] In no time, Pentagon bureaucrats were happily drawing up budgets for Reagan's ambitious new program.

- And it's gonna cost you something extra.

$10,000, all in advance.

- $10,000?

- [Narrator] Actually, $10,000 turned out to be a low ball.

But this was a time when there was no stopping technological innovation.

- [Voiceover] Introducing Auto Cup by Ronco.

The amazing no spill cup.

Get a Buttoneer.

The only automatic button fastener.

But now, there's the Egg Scrambler.

It scrambles an egg while it's still in the shell.

- [Narrator] But wait, there's more.

With government funding in place, defense contractors were soon hard at work developing ultra futuristic weapons systems beyond Americans wildest imaginations, unless they had ever played Pong.

And the Strategic Defense Initiative was only getting more innovative.

- [Voiceover] The heart of S.D.I.

Phase One will undoubtedly be Brilliant Pebbles.

- [Narrator] Suck it, Bam Bam.

President Trump learned a great deal from the past.

But how does he plan to pay for this amazing new chapter of science fiction?

By cutting how much the government spends on actual science and actual space research.

If our country could only afford science or science fiction, we're much better off with science fiction.

Science fiction is fun, but science is so complicated even our smartest politicians have a hard time understanding it.

- We keep hearing the warmest year on record.

You know what this is?

It's a snowball.

- Polar bears, because it's warmer, actually are living better than they were before.

- How do you explain climate change before man ever had a carbon footprint?

How do you explain that?

- The statement that you just made is blatantly false.

- [Narrator] If that scientist wants people to understand his explanations, he should try making his science more interesting.

- There are variations in the Earth's orbital elements.

- We shouldn't waste money on actual science when science fiction is more fun and easier to comprehend.

- [Narrator] President Reagan's Star Wars was an excellent example for today's leaders.

A genius program with only one single flaw.

It didn't work.

- Aw, shut up.