President Donald Trump has explained why he pulled the nomination of Jared Isaacman for NASA chief at the last minute.
Trump announced in December 2024 that he had chosen Isaacman, a billionaire tech entrepreneur and private astronaut, to lead the nation’s space agency. Isaacman sailed through the various nomination steps after Trump took office and was set to be confirmed by the Senate in early June.
But on May 31, the White House pulled the rug out, announcing that Isaacman was gone. “It’s essential that the next leader of NASA is in complete alignment with President Trump’s America First agenda, and a replacement will be announced directly by President Trump soon,” White House spokesperson Liz Huston said in an emailed statement on May 31.
Trump gave some specifics Sunday (July 6) on Truth Social, the social media network that he owns. He posted a lengthy rebuke of erstwhile supporter and ally Elon Musk, decrying the SpaceX chief’s recently revealed plans to start a new political party.
Toward the end of that broadside, Trump addressed the NASA nomination situation, saying that Musk had requested that his “close friend” Isaacman be given the space agency’s reins.
Trump wrote that, while he initially thought Isaacman “was very good,” the president “was surprised to learn that he was a blue-blooded Democrat, who had never contributed to a Republican before.”
“Elon probably was, also,” the president added. “I also thought it inappropriate that a very close friend of Elon, who was in the Space Business, run NASA, when NASA is such a big part of Elon’s corporate life.”
Isaacman pushed back against these claims in a post Monday (July 7) on X, the social media site that Musk owns.
Isaacman — who funded and commanded two missions to Earth orbit that used SpaceX hardware — stressed that he knows Musk only in a professional capacity. And he said that Trump mischaracterized his campaign contributions, which he made open and available throughout the nomination process.
“I have been relatively apolitical — a right-leaning moderate — and my political donations across both parties (though 10x more to Republicans) were disclosed in writing, with rationale, before my nomination was ever submitted to the Senate,” Isaacman wrote.
The 42-year-old billionaire, who founded the payment-processing company Shift4, took the high road in his post, as he has done throughout the tortuous nomination process.
“Personally, I don’t regret anything — it was an honor to even be considered by the President,” Isaacman wrote. “I loved DC and my brief time in the arena. The real disappointment is the time lost by Senators and staff who invested six months into a confirmation process that was ultimately withdrawn.”
Since Trump’s inaugauration on Jan. 20, NASA has been led by Acting Administrator Janet Petro. Trump has not yet named a replacement for Isaacman.
