Jared, We Hardly Knew Ye
The Trump administration withdraws Isaacman's NASA nomination just days before the Senate was to confirm him.
The nomination hearing for Jared Isaacman on April 9, 2025. Video source: Space SPAN YouTube channel.
The nomination of a NASA administrator is typically a dull, if not perfunctory, affair.
Most administrator nominations in NASA history have drawn little attention from the public. Nominees have been astronauts, technocrats, bankers, military officers. The last two administrators were politicians.
The US Constitution requires agency administrators to be vetted and approved by the Senate. The Senate committee responsible for NASA oversight typically holds a hearing, asks the nominee questions, then meets later to confirm the candidate. Their recommendation goes to the Senate floor.
Rarely has a nomination had any melodrama. As an example, John F. Kennedy’s nomination of James Webb came on January 30, 1961, ten days after Kennedy took office. Webb was confirmed on February 14. He was just one of many nominees the Senate had to process in the early days of the new administration. Approved. Stamp. Next.
Webb was succeeded by in October 1968 by Thomas Paine, who served until September 1970. Richard Nixon took his time naming Paine’s successor; according to a November 29, 1970 syndicated political gossip column, it was expected that Nixon would nominate “an experienced, glad-handing industrial executive, one able to cope with the political maneuvering of House and Senate Space Committees.” Rumors began to circulate in February 1971 that Nixon would nominate James Fletcher, a former aerospace executive who was the president of the University of Utah. The nomination became official on February 27, but it took two months for the confirmation process to play out.
Ronald Reagan didn’t nominate James Beggs until April 23, 1981, three months after Reagan took office. Beggs was confirmed nearly three months later.
Donald Trump was elected president on November 5, 2024. The space world was a bit surprised when, on December 4, Trump nominated billionaire Jared Isaacman to be NASA administrator. No billionaire had ever run NASA. (If one of the past administrators was a millionaire, much less a billionaire, it never came up.) Isaacman had established a track record of philanthropy and a true vision for the future of human space flight. I wrote about Isaacman’s track record in a December 6, 2024 Substack.
Despite the early nomination, and despite the Republican party controlling the Senate, Isaacman didn’t have his confirmation hearing until April 9, 2025. Candidates typically go through a background vetting process, so Isaacman’s wealth probably took some time to examine. But there were also rumors that some Republicans — Senate space committee chair Ted Cruz (R-TX) in particular — objected to Isaacman because he had been largely nonpartisan, contributing to candidates of both parties, without any public support for Trump during the 2024 election.
Isaacman had close business ties to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, with which Isaacman had flown to space twice on private missions to raise money for charities. By one account, Musk spent $288 million of his own money in 2024 to help elect Trump and Republican candidates. Trump repaid in kind by turning loose Musk to reform the federal government through a review process Musk named the Department of Governmental Efficiency, a play on the DOGE crypto coin he favors.
Elon Musk is an equal opportunity offender. By May, rumors swirled that Musk’s favor had waned in the White House. While Musk stomped through Washington, SpaceX suffered three public failures of its Starship during test flights, and Tesla shares plummeted while sales dropped nationwide and overseas. Musk announced he would leave government service to return to his businesses; on May 30, Trump held a formal departure event and press conference with Musk in the Oval Office.
Donald Trump holds a press conference with Elon Musk on May 30, 2025. Video source: News from the Past YouTube channel.
Despite Musk’s melodrama, there was little reason to think it might affect Isaacman. Some Democrats had expressed their concerns that a NASA Administrator Isaacman might thumb the scales in favor of SpaceX during contract bids. But most observers believed that Jared would receive bipartisan support when his nomination reached the Senate floor, most likely in early June.
The palace intrigue cost Isaacman his nomination.
Semafor broke the news today that Trump was going to withdraw his nomination of Isaacman. The article quoted a White House spokesperson:
“The Administrator of NASA will help lead humanity into space and execute President Trump’s bold mission of planting the American flag on the planet Mars. 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,” said Liz Huston, a spokesperson for the White House.
The report was later confirmed by a number of media outlets, such as Ars Technica and the Washington Post. According to the Post, Isaacman was informed yesterday — the same day Musk left the Trump administration — that “the nomination was going to be pulled.”
The White House quote suggests that Trump wants someone running NASA who is blindly loyal, the litmus test for most of his appointees. Isaacman’s history suggested he was anything but that.
I don’t feel sorry for Jared escaping the lunacy of this administration, but I do feel sorry for how he upended his life and separated from his business interests to enter government service, only to have Donald Trump betray him. You’d think people would learn by now.
It’s been a tough week for NASA. The White House yesterday released the details of its Fiscal Year 2026 NASA budget proposal. If Trump gets his way, NASA’s budget will decrease from $24.9 billion to $18.8 billion, with many science missions eliminated and thousands of civil servants laid off. Trump wants NASA to focus on his quixotic demand for a crewed Mars landing before his term ends.
He’s unlikely to get what he wants. In Washington political circles there’s an old adage — “What the president proposes, the Congress disposes.” The Constitution gives final budget authority to Congress, not the executive branch.
Any new nominee will have to go through the same vetting and confirmation process that Isaacman endured. Until then, NASA’s acting administrator will remain. Janet Petro was the Kennedy Space Center director until she was reassigned to Headquarters to run the agency. She disappointed many in the space community when she sent out a memo in late January ordering NASA departments to terminate diversity programs and report anyone trying to save them. The memo was sent at the order of the Trump White House.
Assuming no one takes the job, she’ll be responsible for slashing a quarter of the agency’s budget, and terminating much of its science programs. Does she really want that as her legacy? Rhetorical question.
As for who would take the job, one possibility is Greg Autry, who was nominated on March 24 to be NASA’s chief financial officer. Autry has long ties to Trump, having served on the Trump campaign’s NASA review team after winning the 2016 election. Autry co-authored a 2011 book, Death by China, with economist Peter Navarro, long a Trump insider. In January 2024, Navarro was sentenced to four months in prison for refusing to honor a congressional subpoena probing Trump’s involvement in the January 6, 2021 attempt to overthrow the government. Navarro has returned to the White House as Trump’s trade counselor and is considered a prime architect of Trump’s tariff trade war.
According to his LinkedIn page, Autry most recently was the Associate Provost for Space Commercialization and Strategy at the University of Central Florida. I met him a few years ago when he was on the adjunct faculty for the International Space University offered that year out of the Florida Institute of Technology. We also have roots back in Southern California; he earned his doctorate from the University of California Irvine, the city where I lived before moving to Florida in 2009. UCI is where he and Navarro connected. Autry recently served as the National Space Society’s Vice President of Space Development; I’m an NSS member and have friends there, so another connection.
I mention Autry not because I have any unique insider information. I just think he fits the profile of someone Trump would want in the job, especially if the nominee has to be “in complete alignment with President Trump’s America First agenda.”
If it’s not Greg, then I have to think it will be hard to find anyone competent for the job, especially after Trump undercut Isaacman. NASA administrator is considered by many to be a thankless job, but usually the lack of gratitude comes after you’ve served in the job.
UPDATE June 1, 2025 6:00 AM EDT — Trump overnight posted on Truth Social that Isaacman was fired “[a]fter a thorough review of prior associations.” As I wrote upstream, and last December, Isaacman has always been nonpartisan and has donated to candidates from both parties.
Over on the former Twitter, Isaacman posted this message just after 10 PM EDT last night.
UPDATE June 1, 2025 4:00 PM EDT — The Wall Street Journal posted a lengthy article about the relationship between Trump and Musk. Nothing specific about Jared Isaacman, but it implies that he may have been collateral damage.
CBS News Sunday Morning aired its complete interview with Elon Musk. Correspondent David Pogue said the interview was taped on Tuesday May 27 just before the Starship IFT-9 test flight. Pogue opened with political questions that Musk said were off-limits — then started to talk about politics anyway. Pogue suggests that the interview may have played a role in Musk’s departure from the Trump administration.
David Pogue’s interview with Elon Musk aired June 1, 2025 on “CBS News Sunday Morning.” Video source: CBS Sunday Morning YouTube channel.
UPDATE June 1, 2025 8:00 PM EDT — Jackie Wattles at CNN reports that “Musk’s exit left room for a faction of people in Trump’s inner circle, particularly Sergio Gor, the director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office and longtime MAGA supporter, to advocate for installing a different nominee.”
The source told CNN, “I wouldn’t be surprised if other Elon-connected people are going to find their way out at some point.”
UPDATE June 2, 2025 8:00 AM EDT — According to The New York Times, Donald Trump was aware in December 2024 of Jared Isaacman’s prior support of Democrats, when Trump nominated him to be NASA administrator, even before Trump had been sworn into the presidency.
While Mr. Trump privately told advisers in recent days that he was surprised to learn of Mr. Isaacman’s contributions and that he had not been told of them previously, he and his team were briefed about them during the presidential transition in late 2024, before Mr. Isaacman’s nomination, according to two people with knowledge of the events.
One source claimed that Isaacman told Trump personally of the donations when they met prior to his selection.
The article reported, “Allies of Mr. Musk and some allies of Mr. Trump spent part of Saturday publicly trying to salvage the nomination.”
The Guardian cites three sources who believe that “retired US air force Lt Gen Steven Kwast, an early advocate for the creation of the US space force and a Trump supporter,” is a candidate to replace Isaacman as Trump’s NASA nominee. Eric Berger at Ars Technica cites two sources who believe that Kwast “may be near the top of the list.” Berger commented, “his background seems to be far less oriented toward NASA's civil space mission and far more focused on seeing space as a battlefield—decidedly not an arena for cooperation and peaceful exploration.”
UPDATE June 4, 2025 8:00 PM EDT — Jared Isaacman gave his first public interview today to David Friedberg of The All-In Podcast.
Although much of what he says is true, I think it’s a bit naive to think he’ll ever get Congress (or a president) to just give NASA money to do what it wants without oversight. Loathsome as some members of Congress may be, they represent their constituents for better or worse, whose tax dollars pay for NASA activities. NASA’s budget is laden with pork, but that’s true of many federal agencies. I’ve yet to see any town step forward and say, “Shut down the NASA contractor in our town and lay off those hundreds of jobs, they’re sure not needed!”
Lasting reform is possible only when the White House and Congress work together to solve the problem and find consensus. That won’t be possible until a president can convince members of Congress to phase out obsolete pork-laden programs that benefit their districts and states. I’ve heard nothing like that from Isaacman, and certainly not from this administration.
Today’s Jared Isaacman podcast interview. Video source: All-In Podcast YouTube channel.
UPDATE June 4, 2025 9:30 PM EDT — The Wall Street Journal reports that Elon Musk’s criticisms about Donald Trump’s budget bill are a reaction to Trump firing Jared Isaacman.
The decision infuriated Musk, who complained to associates over the weekend that he had donated hundreds of millions of dollars to help get Trump elected in last year’s campaign, only to see Isaacman’s nomination pulled, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said. Musk’s frustration over the NASA episode made him more willing to aggressively criticize the tax bill, people close to him said. Musk didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
UPDATE June 5, 2025 2:30 PM EDT — From space journalist Marcia Smith on the former Twitter:
During Oval Office mtg w/Germany's Merz today, questions turned to Musk and Trump said Musk's choice for NASA Admin was "totally Democrat" and not appropriate. Then said Gen Dan Caine (Chm of Joint Chiefs) is picking a replacement "and we'll be checking him out."
It’s unfathomable to me why the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff would be picking a NASA nominee. NASA is by law a civilian agency. The 1958 Space Act is quite explicit about that. §20102(b):
Congress declares that the general welfare and security of the United States require that adequate provision be made for aeronautical and space activities. Congress further declares that such activities shall be the responsibility of, and shall be directed by, a civilian agency exercising control over aeronautical and space activities sponsored by the United States, except that activities peculiar to or primarily associated with the development of weapons systems, military operations, or the defense of the United States (including the research and development necessary to make effective provision for the defense of the United States) shall be the responsibility of, and shall be directed by, the Department of Defense; and that determination as to which agency has responsibility for and direction of any such activity shall be made by the President.
UPDATE June 5, 3:00 PM EDT — From CNN journalist Kaitlin Collins via the former Twitter, Donald Trump has threatened to cancel all SpaceX contracts in retaliation for Elon Musk’s criticisms. (This would be illegal.)
