Musk was a key factor behind the nomination of Isaacman as NASA manager, and with his support, Isaacman was able to skip some of the purity tests that have been applied to other nominees of Trump administration. A figure against Isaacman is that he had recently donated money to Democrats. He also indicated the opposition against some of the proposed cutbacks of the White House on the NASA science budget.
The role of Musk in the government was very controversial and won him enemies, both among opponents of Trump's “Make America Great Again” agenda and within the administration. One source told Ars that, with Musk's exit, his opponents within the government tried to punish him by killing Isaacman's nomination.
The loss of Isaacman is almost certainly a blow to NASA, which has to do with considerable cuts on the budget. The budget request of the Trump administration for the tax year 2026, released on Friday, is looking for $ 18.8 billion for the office next year – reduced a 24 percent of the budget of the $ 24.8 billion office for FY 2025.
Go bankrupt?
Isaacman is generally loved in the space community and it is known that it gives a lot of exploration for space. Civil servants within the Space Agency – and the larger space community – achieved that having him as NASA's leader would help the agency to restore part of these cuts.
Now? “NASA is f —- ed,” a current leader told Ars on Saturday.
“NASA's budget request is just a continuous mode without Jared to innovate there,” said a former senior NASA leader.
The Trump government did not mention a new nominee, but two people told Ars that the former American Air Force Lieutenant General Steven L. Klast may be at the top of the list. Now retired, Kwast has a major record at the Air Force and is politically loyal to Trump and Maga.
His background, however, seems to be much less focused on the civil space emission of NASA and much more focused on seeing space as a battlefield – did not dissolve an arena for cooperation and peaceful exploration.
