Is Trump considering re-nominating Jared Isaacman for NASA administrator?
Billionaire Jared Isaacman
According to a report late today (based on anonymous sources), President Trump has held several face-to-face meetings in the past few weeks with billionaire Jared Isaacman, and those meetings have raised the possibility of Trump re-nominating him for NASA administrator.
According to Bloomberg News, President Trump has reportedly met with Isaacman several times in recent weeks to discuss NASA’s operational plans and future plans. Isaacman is the founder of fintech company Shift4 Payments and a private astronaut at SpaceX who has had a longstanding relationship with Elon Musk.
Isaacman, who has flown two private missions in space (and done one spacewalk), had been nominated by Trump for NASA administrator in December 2024, and was only days away from a Senate confirmation vote when Trump suddenly withdrew the nomination on May 31, 2025. Though it has never been clear why Trump withdrew the nomination, Isaacman’s past support of Democrats and his close links to Musk have been raised as issues, especially because of the Trump-Musk kerfuffle in the spring. Isaacman has also expressed some opinions since then about NASA and what it should do that might not have fit with Trump’s plans.
At the same time, NASA is presently without its own administrator, with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy holding down the job as an interim head. It appears Trump might be reconsidering his earlier decision in order to get someone in charge of NASA who isn’t distracted by other responsibilities.
Note however that this report is solely from anonymous sources, and we all know how unreliable those are. The whole story could be fantasy cooked up by someone in DC for any number of devious political purposes.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Billionaire Jared Isaacman
According to a report late today (based on anonymous sources), President Trump has held several face-to-face meetings in the past few weeks with billionaire Jared Isaacman, and those meetings have raised the possibility of Trump re-nominating him for NASA administrator.
According to Bloomberg News, President Trump has reportedly met with Isaacman several times in recent weeks to discuss NASA’s operational plans and future plans. Isaacman is the founder of fintech company Shift4 Payments and a private astronaut at SpaceX who has had a longstanding relationship with Elon Musk.
Isaacman, who has flown two private missions in space (and done one spacewalk), had been nominated by Trump for NASA administrator in December 2024, and was only days away from a Senate confirmation vote when Trump suddenly withdrew the nomination on May 31, 2025. Though it has never been clear why Trump withdrew the nomination, Isaacman’s past support of Democrats and his close links to Musk have been raised as issues, especially because of the Trump-Musk kerfuffle in the spring. Isaacman has also expressed some opinions since then about NASA and what it should do that might not have fit with Trump’s plans.
At the same time, NASA is presently without its own administrator, with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy holding down the job as an interim head. It appears Trump might be reconsidering his earlier decision in order to get someone in charge of NASA who isn’t distracted by other responsibilities.
Note however that this report is solely from anonymous sources, and we all know how unreliable those are. The whole story could be fantasy cooked up by someone in DC for any number of devious political purposes.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Wild if true!
But with Sergio Gor booted from the White House, maybe this isn’t improbable, especially if Trump really has been meeting with him.
Based on the renewed entente between Musk and Trump that was apparently cemented at the Charlie Kirk memorial, this could well be one of its early results. Before his murder, it was known that Charlie – a friend of both men – had been doing his best to get Musk and Trump back together. As a posthumous “gift” to Charlie, one can see why both men – and especially Trump – would do this. Charlie was actually killed by an assassin, Trump had two close calls and Musk has probably logged more death threats than anyone else in the last couple of years.
The original story was from Loren Grush at Bloomberg News who is full-time on the space beat and has a pretty good track record. Like most journos she’s no friend of Trump but a good scoop is a good scoop. There are aspects of this story – if it turns out to be true – that could be taken to make Trump look good and others that don’t. That tends to argue against this story being a rush-to-publish job based on it being a straight-up knock against Trump.
Grush has also been strictly a space reporter for long enough to have developed a decent cadre of sources in the industry and at NASA. Given the turmoil going on at NASA anent budget and job cuts just now, any of those sources would likely be more inclined than usual to pass along grapevine stuff to a reporter. There were, in any case, a lot of NASA staffers who favored Isaacman becoming Administrator – especially the astronaut corps and others in the manned space directorates.
We shall see what we shall see, but I would not be at all surprised if this story pans out and does so fairly soon.
Richard M,
Sergio Gor wasn’t exactly “booted” from the White House. Trump appointed him United States ambassador to India and special envoy for South and Central Asian affairs – quite reasonable jobs given that he was born and spent his early childhood in Uzbekistan. So he is out of the White House, but not as the result of any “boot.” In any case, he no longer represents an irritant anent Musk and Trump.
These are peoples lives Trump is playing with.
Don’t be slumming around in politics, Jared.
Would be interesting, if it pans out.
Hi Dick,
The circumstances of Gor’s departure from the White House remain rather murky. But there’s been some seemingly sourced speculation that he was “kicked upstairs” after various friction he was involved in with other Trump staff. Ambassador to India *is*an important and prestigious position; but it also is not a sinecure with nearly as much direct impact on the day to say operation of the Trump Administration.
One day, an interesting book will be written on all this, when people are ready to talk.
P.S. Pardon my typos — using my phone here!
” . . . as much direct impact on the day to say operation of the Trump Administration.”
I thought it might be a typo, but I like the concept. What the individual has to say, impacts daily operations. Bueno.
It *was* a typo, but I appreciate you trying to salvage something clever out of it!
We know what a Trump Firing With Prejudice looks like, and what Sergio Gor got was not one of those. He’s got an ambassadorship to the most populous country in the world. But it’s clear that he was no longer able to stick around inside the White House. I doubt that l’Affaire Isaacman played a prominent role in that exile, but just the same, it may prove to be one of the unfortunate legacies of his time there, especially if it turns out that Trump is having regrets on that score.
Instead of acting like typical Eurotrash, the Nobel committee should have made a deal with the Donald that he gets the peace medal contingent upon resigning. Vance is a better thinker.
Trump wants the Nobel for the same reason Bill O’Reilly once aspired to be the Evening News anchor at CBS – both were marks of considerable distinction in their younger days. Network news anchorships confer almost no status now, of course, and the Nobel Peace Prize has become a plated pot metal gee-gaw as its former distinction has been watered and re-watered down through the choice of many laughable recipients in recent decades.
It seems likely Vance will get his turn in the Big Boy Chair soon enough without any assistance from Oslo. Vance is a good thinker, but Trump is chalking up a pretty good track record for an alleged dunce. Vance will likely have his work cut out for him in trying to better it once he gets the chance.
By the way, exactly whose lives is Trump supposedly “playing with?”
Politics is certainly, in general, a swamp, but not everyone involved in it is necessarily a swamp creature.
If I were Jared, I would resent having my chain yanked.
Though in the private world, there have likely been firings/rehirings where some suit fires the one old hand who kept the company afloat then wishes he hadn’t.
Being a miser, I don’t eat at fast food joints often–but when I do, I see the same thing….one poor 60 year old doing all the work while kids just sit there and stare at each other.