Space News by Jeff Foust July 7, 2025
President Donald Trump says it would have been “inappropriate” for Jared Isaacman to lead NASA given his ties to Elon Musk and history of political donations, without offering any clues on who he might instead choose to lead the space agency.
In a July 6 post on Truth Social, the social media service affiliated with Trump, the president sharply criticized Elon Musk for announcing plans to create a new political party triggered by the passage last week of a budget reconciliation bill that Musk strongly opposed.
That criticism included a discussion of the White House’s original nominee to lead NASA, Jared Isaacman. “Elon asked that one of his close friends run NASA and, while I thought his friend was very good, I was surprised to learn that he was a blue-blooded Democrat, who had never contributed to a Republican before,” the post stated.
The statement about his political contributions is incorrect based on public records. Isaacman has donated to Republican candidates, including Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), now the chairman of the House Transportation Committee. However, more recent donations, including those in the 2024 election cycle, were to Democratic candidates and organizations. That donation history almost certainly would have been part of the vetting process for his nomination, which Trump announced in December 2024.
More:
https://spacenews.com/trump-says-it-would-have-been-inappropriate-for-isaacman-to-lead-nasa/
