President Trump made an unexpected appearance at a NASA post-launch news conference on Sunday morning, breaking with long-standing presidential tradition and underscoring the growing attention the White House is paying to the space agency. The event, held at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, was intended to update reporters on the status of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope following its launch.
Roughly half an hour into the briefing, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman checked his phone, stepped away from the dais where he was seated alongside other officials, and briefly left the room. He returned about a minute later, apologizing for interrupting NASA science chief Nicky Fox as she discussed the mission. “The President of the United States of America would like to address and congratulate everyone on this mission,” Isaacman told the room.
Trump then spoke to the assembled reporters and NASA staff through Isaacman’s phone. “I just want to thank everybody, and congratulate you. Boy, it looked beautiful on television,” he said of the telescope launch. “Jared is doing a fantastic job, you are doing a fantastic job, and I’m supplying you all that money.”
A Break From Presidential Norms
Sitting presidents rarely engage directly with NASA operations. Historically, they call astronauts orbiting the Moon rather than phoning into routine post-launch briefings. Civil space programs typically rank low on the presidential priority list, though that calculus has been shifting as space grows more important from a military standpoint.
The moment reflects what appears to be a period of heightened interest in NASA from Trump. On Friday, he spent several hours at Johnson Space Center in Houston, where he awarded the crew of Artemis II the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and announced plans for a United States Space Academy. Over the weekend, his attention turned to the launch of the Roman Space Telescope, NASA’s next major space-based observatory.
An Unexpected Alliance With Isaacman
Trump has repeatedly praised Isaacman, a businessman and private astronaut working to modernize NASA for the current era of spaceflight. The rapport is notable given the recent history between the two. Just over a year ago, Trump withdrew Isaacman’s nomination to lead the agency, citing a lack of “complete alignment” with the America First agenda. Isaacman, a political moderate who leans Republican, had previously donated to some Democratic candidates. Late last year, Trump reversed course and reinstated the nomination.
“With Jared, I have to tell you, everybody wanted him,” Trump said Friday in Houston. “I got a lot of calls from Republicans and Democrats, something that doesn’t happen very often, and the people just said, ‘He’s just the best.’ There was no competition. And he’s turned out to be better than we even thought possible, right? Even better. So we’re lucky to have Jared.”
Over the past 12 months, Isaacman has focused on building political relationships across both parties within the White House and Congress. On Friday, Trump awarded the Artemis II crew the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and outlined plans for a new United States Space Academy.
Source
Image: arstechnica.com
