Ashik Islam, Special correspondent: Jared Isaacman testifies during a Senate confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill on April 9, 2025.
On Saturday, the White House confirmed it will announce a different candidate to lead NASA, indicating it’s pulling the nomination of tech billionaire Jared Isaacman.
According to White House assistant press secretary Liz Huston, “The NASA Administrator will play a key role in leading humanity into space and executing President Trump’s bold mission to plant the American flag on Mars. We need NASA’s next leader to be completely aligned with President Trump’s America First agenda, and President Trump will announce a replacement himself very soon.”
The decision to withdraw Isaacman’s nomination for NASA administrator came just days before the Senate was scheduled to vote. Isaacman, who has flown to space twice on private missions and has strong ties to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, caused a stir in the space community when President Trump first announced his selection in December, as CNN previously reported. While his appointment garnered significant support within the space community, who saw him as a passionate leader whose spaceflight experience was an asset, Democratic lawmakers expressed deep skepticism. They worried he would leverage his role at NASA to further Musk’s personal agenda.
The reasons behind Trump’s sudden reversal were not clear. During Isaacman’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation in April, he signaled he would back an effort to land humans on Mars. The remarks were notable because NASA has been squarely focused on the Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts to the moon, since Trump’s first term.
Only since Musk became a close Trump ally in 2024 has the president vocalized an interest in human exploration of Mars, which has been Musk’s longtime goal.
Isaacman signaled during the April confirmation hearing that he hoped to back both the Artemis program’s underlying goals as well as “prioritize sending American astronauts to Mars.”
“On our journey to Mars, we’ll naturally develop the means to return to the Moon and evaluate the scientific, economic, and national security benefits of a continuous lunar presence,” Isaacman commented.
CNN has reached out to Isaacman for his input. NASA referred questions to the White House.
Musk, who served as Trump’s “first buddy” and led the Department of Government Efficiency, left the administration this week. The tech mogul, who had recently aired disagreements with Trump, said he’ll “remain a friend and adviser” to the president.
Musk vowed to refocus on SpaceX and Starship, the massive rocket system he hopes will ferry large groups of people to Mars. Starship is still in early development, and its prototypes have spun out of control and exploded during three test flights this year, including one on Tuesday.
Semafor first reported that the White House was likely to pull Isaacman’s nomination.
