Jared Isaacman: Trump changes plans for posts by NASA boss

The billionaire and space tourist Jared Isaacman, proposed by US President Donald Trump as the new head of the NASA space authority, and space tourist Jared Isaacman should not take over. Trump said that he had withdrawn the nomination of the 42-year-old “after a thorough review of previous connections” via his online language tube Truth. He will soon announce a new candidate who “will put America to the first place in space”.

Trump had nominated the confidante of Tech billionaire Elon Musk when he took office in January as the successor to the resigned NASA leader Bill Nelson. According to media reports, the personnel should have been confirmed shortly by the US Senate.

Musk was disappointed with the withdrawn nomination of Isaacmans and wrote on the platform X: “You rarely find someone who is so competent and kind -hearted.”

Trump’s departure from his former candidate comes as a surprise. In December last year he had praised him in the highest tones. With his experience as astronaut, Isaacman is “ideal for this (…) to lead NASA to a brave new era,” said Trump at the time.

Isaacman itself also commented on his resignation on X: “I will always be grateful for this opportunity and cheer on our president and NASA when they lead us to the greatest adventure of human history.” The United States deserves the very best, “an administrator who is ready to reorganize the best and smartest minds, to rebuild and gather in order to deliver the world -changing headlines for which the NASA was created”.

In recent years, Isaacman had caused a stir with two private space missions: in 2021 he was part of the first crew in space, which was only consisting of amateur astronauts and, together with three other space drivers, circled for almost three days. In September 2024, he took part in the “Polaris Dawn” mission with three other space tourists, where they hovered at around 1400 kilometers and also briefly got out of their spaceship.

In both missions, Isaacman worked with SpaceX, the private space company of Elon Musk, who left his position in the Trump government on Friday after turbulent months as a representative for cost reduction.

According to the “New York Times”, Trump’s personnel decision should also have to do with the dwindling influence of Musk in the government. In addition, the Republican learned that Isaacman had supported the Democrats with party donations in the past, the newspaper reported, citing the matter.