ICYMI: Uncertainty at NASA After Trump Pulls Musk Ally's Nomination
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President Trump said he would name a new nominee for NASA administrator just days before billionaire Jared Isaacman, who's a current pick and a close ally of Elon Musk, was set to face planned Senate confirmation vote. He's been a Democratic donor in the past, Jared Isaacman has, and he's found support across swaths of the space industry and in Congress, though some lawmakers voiced concern over his close ties to Musk's SpaceX. We got with us Lauren Grush. She's Bloomberg News space reporter.

She's also the author of The Six, The Untold Story of America's First Women Astronauts. She joins us from Austin, Texas. Lauren, we had you on when Isaacman was chosen. This is a guy who's actually been to space. He's a billionaire. He knows a lot about space. He's a fighter pilot. He's the CEO of Shift, or was at the time, not anymore, the CEO of Shift for Payments. Just remind us

You know what you spoke to us about just a couple of months ago when he was named NASA administrator. Just remind us who he is and what experience he would have brought to NASA.

Sure. I think when he was first announced, there was a lot of enthusiasm across the space industry about his nomination, just because of what you mentioned. He has a really long and lengthy resume that comes with, you know, in-flight space experience. He also has a lot of opinions that he voices regularly about space policy on social media. He seemed to come

to NASA with a very clear vision of what he thought the agency should be doing, how it should be spending its money more efficiently. You know, he had a lot of opinions about the inefficiencies of the contracting process within the agency. And a lot of people celebrated his nomination across the industry just because, you know, he did have that, you know, very...

intricate pedigree when it came to space and how to run the agency. I do want to correct myself. I said he was CEO of Shift4, but he was still CEO. And this is actually part of the story. Taylor Lauber was actually set to start as CEO of Shift4 to take over for Isaac Min. Now that's kind of in flux, Emily, after this nomination was pulled. Right. What...

What was Trump's rationale? What do we know about why he pulled this nomination? Right.

Yeah, so the official line concerns, I think, what Tim had said earlier about his past donations to Democrats. And supposedly that was brought to the president's attention very recently. And the fact that, you know, he gave more to Democrats than to say Republican donors seem to be rubbing the president the wrong way. And ultimately, he hinted at that in his social post about why he had pulled the nomination that day.

He was looking for someone in more alignment with the White House. I think what's confusing to a lot of people is that it was not a secret that Jared had donated to Democrats. In fact, this has been widely reported. So perhaps it is something that just caught the president's attention recently.

or perhaps it's, you know, the official line for something else. But that that is kind of where the White House is pointing to as to why this is happening. Yeah, it's interesting to hear that. I mean, we're not going to talk politics here, Lauren, but I just do want to remind people that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., for example, is

actually ran against President Trump for the 2024 presidency before he dropped out and aligned himself with the president. You've had people such as the president himself talk during the 2016 election that he was he was asked about this, that he had donated to Democrats in the past. And so it's it's an interesting explanation that we're hearing or a notable explanation that we're certainly hearing from the White House. But

To me, Lauren, it differs than sort of other people that he staffed his cabinet with. It hasn't mattered to those folks. I mean, haven't the like haven't all these folks like a lot of the Silicon Valley folks who are supportive of the president now weren't supportive of him necessarily in the past. Right.

Right. Exactly. You know, so there is some thought that perhaps this is kind of like the straw that broke the camel's back. You know, maybe too many people with Democratic ties were making their way into the administration. But I think it's important to think of the Elon of it all for, you know, it also comes at a time when Elon Musk is very publicly ending, you know, his time at Congress.

with the White House and his Doge operation. And Jared Isaacman was very much seen as an ally of Elon because he had such close ties to SpaceX. You know, he's flown twice with the company to space, donated a lot of money or invested a lot of money into their research programs to further human spaceflight at the company. So Jared was very much seen as an Elon Musk ally.

And so there is obviously speculation that this was kind of related to Elon's exit now that he's on his way out the door. Maybe some pushed for less ties, fewer ties to Elon in the White House.

Hey, Lauren, so you write that the White House's about face comes after President Trump released a budget plan that would call for slashing NASA's budget by 25 percent from the previous year. I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit more just about like what are Trump's visions for NASA right now? What is NASA supposed to be doing in an ideal Trump world?

Right. I think that's kind of the open question right now among the space community. The budget proposal that the White House has released would, if enacted, would be the largest single cut to the agency since the agency was created. Primarily,

primarily targets space science programs. So it would cancel a lot of missions for planetary science, astrophysics, things of that nature. You know, a lot of the things that NASA has become famous for are being targeted in this budget plan. At the same time, there is a much more renewed focus on human spaceflight with the budget, um,

some money being given to start, you know, make sure we're staying, we stay on the course for lunar exploration, sending humans back to the moon through this, the Artemis program that NASA has created. And then also starting up development into potentially sending humans to Mars. So it seems like there is much more of a focus on, you know, funding human spaceflight initiatives and a pullback on space science, which doesn't necessarily have human,

on board when those happen. And I think that's a kind of a fundamental tension that the agency has grappled with for many decades. And it seems to be clear where this White House, what line they fall on when it comes to that debate. We're speaking with Lauren Grush. She's Bloomberg News space reporter. She's also the author of The Six, The Untold Story of America's First Women Astronauts, joining us from Austin, Texas.

Lauren, do we know what direction the president wants NASA to go in or the president? We don't do know which direction the president will go in now that Isaacson Isaacman's name has been pulled. Are there any names being banded about at this point?

There's definitely names being banded about. I'm not sure. I'm ready to say them publicly, but there's definitely speculation on who would come next. I think what we can expect is that this White House is very keen on furthering the privatization of spaceflight and making it so that NASA helps to jumpstart the commercial space industry even more than it already has. So NASA less being the ones to overhaul

oversee development and to spend all the money on all these endeavors, but to partner with the commercial space industry and to, you know, help the vitalization or revitalization of the commercial space industry by helping companies get the money they need to jumpstart

their various programs. I think the question becomes, though, you know, how long is it going to take for a new nominee to get named? You know, they have to go through the entire Senate confirmation process again. We were on the cusp of that happening with Jared. I think, as you mentioned, it was expected that he was going to get confirmed by the full

Senate today, or at least as early as today. And so now we have to start from square one, they have to be vetted, they have to go through a hearing. And so when that person will be in charge of the agency is an open question. And then during that time, we're going through the typical budget process, right? So there's going to be hearings and, you

discussion among lawmakers about these major budget cuts that the White House has proposed, but NASA doesn't have a full-time advocate, a political advocate. They have an acting administrator, Janet Petro, but that person has not been fully

vetted. It's not her responsibility to really take up the mantle of what the White House wants. So NASA is kind of lacking this leader to really be an advocate for the agency. And so what that means for the budget process through the rest of the year is going to be interesting. Maybe I'm naive in thinking that

space should be or is supposed to be bipartisan. I'm wondering, you've obviously followed the space for a while. Is space becoming more politicized?

more partisan? I think that is the concern for sure. You know, there's for a long time, space has barely benefited from space policy has benefited from being bipartisan. Everybody loves space. Democrats and Republicans alike love to, you know, have space initiatives in their districts and things like that. I think everybody can rally it

behind space, but I think the concern is that with Elon's foray into politics, he's obviously very closely aligned with SpaceX and NASA and now space policy, and so has that

had a tarnishing effect on space and, you know, people who support space. I don't know if we're that far into it yet, but that is the concern because once space does become politicized, then it suffers from many of the other things that happen to very politicized topics, you know, and then it becomes less about, you know, science and discovery and more about

who supports what. Lauren, going to have to leave it there. Always appreciate when you join us and we know we'll have you back on when they announce a new pick for NASA administrator, but hopefully before then as well. Lauren Grush, Bloomberg News space reporter. Check out her book, The Six, The Untold Story of America's First Women Astronauts. How can you grow your business from idea to industry leader? Bring your vision to life with smart business buying tools and technology from Amazon Business. From

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