The current US administration’s plans were to send astronauts to Mars. That’s now been dropped, and the emphasis will now be to compete with China and try to build a base before them. Who starts a lunar base first matters. Although the Outer Space Treaty prohibits anyone from claiming lunar territory, whoever sets up a base can claim some sort of rights to the site and its vicinity.
The best site will be somewhere on the south pole (this means almost continuous sunlight) with access to frozen water at the bottom of craters. It’s possible that extensive lava tubes for radiation protection will be important, too. China’s plans envision its base being built inside these. The number of places with easy access to water and lots of lava tubes may be very small, and some much better than others. Presumably whoever gets there first will get the best spot.
Who will get there first? It remains to be seen. The US’s weakness is that it is relying on SpaceX’s Starship to first achieve a huge number of technical goals, and so far, SpaceX is far behind schedule on those.
Honestly, if it doesn’t involve practical satelites, rockets, or somehow harvesting more raw solar energy or something, fuck the space tech and the space race. It is a fucking waste of resources built on romanticizing breaking away from Earth. It’s not happening. Travel times are too long and fuel costs too high. There is nothing particularly useful on the moon. There is nothing particularly useful on Mars. And before anyone suggests the bullshit that is terraforming, how about we start with terraforming our own planet and unfucking deforestation, desert expansion, melting ice caps, etc.