President Trump unexpectedly nominated Elon Musk supporter Jared Isaacman to head NASA the day after a news presentation highlighting Musk’s achievements as departing head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Many X postings thanked Musk and listed numerous “DOGE wins,” and the White House issued a film celebrating his efforts to DOGE on May 30. These were among the last public acts of goodwill between Trump and Musk.
Trump withdrew his candidacy for commercial astronaut and CEO of payment processing firm Shift4 Payments, Isaacman, in a Saturday social media post. The decision followed “a thorough review of prior associations.”
Additionally, Trump promised to introduce a “new Nominee who will be Mission aligned, and put America First in Space.”
Isaacman is associated with Musk in a number of ways, including his role as a SpaceX investor and his leadership of two private spaceflight flights, Inspiration4 and Dragon1. The inaugural orbital flight of an all-civilian crew occurred during the 2021 Inspiration4 mission.
On Wednesday’s edition of the “All-In Podcast,” which discusses business, technology, and society and is hosted by four venture capitalists, Isaacman discussed his withdrawn nomination. Isaacman said that on May 30, he was contacted by the White House by phone to inform him that his nomination would not proceed because the administration had “decided to go in a different direction.”
Isaacman stated his suspicion that his connections to Musk had a role in the decision, mentioning that the conversation occurred on the same day that Musk’s time with DOGE ended.
In the podcast, Isaacman stated, “I don’t need to play dumb on this.” There were other modifications happening on the same day, and I don’t think the timing was coincidental.
“There were some people that had some axes to grind, I guess, and I was a good, visible target.”
Following Musk’s May 30 departure as a special government employee and Isaacman’s June 1 withdrawal of nomination, tensions between Trump and Musk intensified.
After Trump withdrew Isaacman’s nomination, Musk’s criticisms of the measure intensified dramatically, despite his earlier statement to CBS News in an interview clip that was released on May 27 that he was dissatisfied with the House’s approval of Trump’s enormous tax and spending package, the “big, beautiful bill,” due to its impact on the federal deficit.
In particular, Musk called the bill a “disgusting abomination” on Tuesday and then urged Americans to “KILL the BILL” in a Wednesday X post by contacting their representatives.
To reporters on Tuesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Trump was cognizant of Musk’s stance on the bill, but that the president’s opinion on the policy remained unchanged. As the emotions between the two men escalated to a boiling point, Trump spared no words on Thursday.
Trump said that Musk was displeased with the bill’s contents because they would reduce a tax credit for electric vehicles, which would be beneficial to Tesla and similar firms. Another thing he said was that Musk may have “Trump derangement syndrome,” a phrase for extremely hostile feelings against the president.
Trump expressed his disappointment to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, saying, “I’m very disappointed because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here, better than you people,” when meeting with Merz in the Oval Office.
“He was well aware of all the details. It was perfectly acceptable to him. Suddenly, he started acting strangely, and he didn’t start acting strangely until he learned that we’d have to reduce the electric vehicle mandate—a decision that would cost astronomical sums of money and be incredibly unjust.
The nomination of Isaacman was also brought up by Trump, who said that Musk had personally nominated Isaacman for the position. Trump, however, was worried about Isaacman’s connections to the Democrats.
“He wanted to suggest someone he knew well, and he was quite within his rights to do so. “To run NASA,” Trump told reporters on Thursday, despite his apparent affection for the man. Plus, I felt it was inappropriate. Additionally, he was a Democrat—absolutely a Democrat. Plus, I’ll mention that we were victorious. We enjoy certain benefits. We are exempt from the requirement to select a Democrat, which is one of the benefits. A lot of people rely on NASA.
Following Musk’s outcry over the nomination’s withdrawal, Trump claimed to have “understood” his frustration.
Isaacman has donated to Democrats, including New York Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and the White House pointed AWN Digital to Trump’s remarks from Thursday.
Isaacman said on the “All-In Podcast” that he considers himself to be “right-leaning” and that he does not believe that his prior financial contributions to Democrats played a role in his withdrawn nomination.
Upon AWN Digital’s request for comment, neither Isaacman nor Musk responded right away.
On Thursday, the feud between Trump and Musk persisted. Musk wanted the “disgusting pork” out of Trump’s budget and tax plan at one time. The fact that he was shown the measure “even once” was also deemed “false” by him.
When asked if Trump would have won the 2024 election without his support, Musk even went to the extreme of saying so. At the same time, Trump called Musk “wearing thin” and accused him of getting “CRAZY” about reductions to electric vehicle rebates.
Trump denied rumors that he and Musk were planning to talk on the phone Friday, despite Politico’s story to the contrary.
“No. “I wish him well, but I won’t be speaking to him for a while, I guess,” Trump stated, as reported by CNN.
Elon is completely out of my mind right now. He is facing an issue. “That poor guy’s got a problem,” Trump remarked.
The White House has stated that DOGE’s initiatives to combat waste, fraud, and abuse would proceed even when Musk leaves, and that Trump and members of his cabinet will continue to supervise DOGE. On July 4, 2026, the agency is scheduled to officially close its doors.
