US President Donald Trump on Saturday said that he planned to withdraw his nomination of Jared Isaacman, a billionaire entrepreneur and close associate of Elon Musk, to be the next Nasa administrator, days before Isaacman’s expected confirmation to the role by the Senate.
Trump in recent days told associates he intended to yank Isaacman’s nomination after being told that he had donated to prominent Democrats, according to three people with knowledge of the deliberations who were not authorised to discuss them publicly. Trump said on social media on Saturday that he had conducted a “thorough review of prior associations” before deciding to withdraw the nomination.
Trump added that he would “soon announce a new Nominee who will be Mission aligned, and put America First in Space”.
The U-turn was the latest example of how Trump uses loyalty as a key criterion for top administration roles, and came at a fraught moment for the space agency. Nasa has so far been spared the deep cuts that have hit the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and other federal research agencies. But the Trump administration’s budget proposal for 2026 seeks to slice the space agency’s budget by one-quarter, lay off thousands of employees and end financing for a slew of current and future missions.
The Trump administration also wants to overhaul Nasa’s human spaceflight programme, ending the Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew capsule initiatives after the Artemis III mission that is to land astronauts on the moon in 2027 and adding money to send astronauts to Mars in the coming years, something that had been a priority for Musk.
People inside and outside Nasa had hoped that Isaacman’s arrival as administrator would help provide stability and a clearer direction for the agency, which has been operating under an acting administrator since the beginning of Trump’s term.
Isaacman, who declined to comment when reached by phone on Saturday, was informed of the decision on Friday, which was also Musk’s last day in the White House as a special government employee.
