Trump Names Musk Foe Interim Head of NASA After Ditching Billionaire’s Ally for Role
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
President Donald Trump appointed Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy the interim administrator of NASA on Wednesday in yet another blow to former ally and DOGE head Elon Musk.
“I am pleased to announce that I am directing our GREAT Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, to be Interim Administrator of NASA,” wrote Trump in a Truth Social post. “Sean is doing a TREMENDOUS job in handling our Country’s Transportation Affairs, including creating a state-of-the-art Air Traffic Control systems, while at the same time rebuilding our roads and bridges, making them efficient, and beautiful, again. He will be a fantastic leader of the ever more important Space Agency, even if only for a short period of time. Congratulations, and thank you, Sean!”
Duffy succeeds Janet Petro, who had served as the acting administrator of NASA since Trump’s inauguration in January and quickly brought an end to DEI programs at the agency.
The appointment of Duffy – who repeatedly clashed with Musk during the SpaceX CEO’s time in the Trump administration –serves as yet another blow to Musk in his ongoing feud with Trump.
During a White House meeting in March, Duffy reportedly clashed with Musk after complaining that Musk’s DOGE team “was trying to lay off air traffic controllers,” despite a string of recent plane crashes.
“I have multiple plane crashes to deal with now, and your people want me to fire air traffic controllers?” Duffy reportedly remarked. Musk responded by calling the assertion a “lie.”
In April, Duffy also took a swipe at DOGE’s cuts during a press conference.
“I want to talk about DOGE for a second, okay?” he said. “Do I want to make our government more efficient? Do I want to be able to do a little more with a little less because then I put more money into the great work that we do? Yeah, I want to do that. But you can’t do that without good people, right?”
He continued, “And so, though I want us to be more efficient, I also look, and as I think of DOGE cutting things, I don’t know about that elsewhere, but we actually build things here, right? You can’t cut your way to a new road, you can’t cut your way to a new bridge, you can’t cut your way into a new air traffic control system. So we’re actually going to build in this department.”
Trump has previously nominated Musk ally Jared Isaacman to serve as his administrator of NASA. However, as Musk left the administration in May, Trump suddenly withdrew the nomination.
This withdrawal of Isaacman’s nomination was reportedly the “final straw” for Musk, who became one of Trump’s most vocal critics just days after leaving the administration. Musk has since blasted Trump’s former relationship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and threatened to launch a rival political party.
