Donald Trump withdraws Musk Ally Jared Isaacman's nomination to Head of Nasa | Today news

US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he withdrew his nomination from technical billionaire Jared Isaacman, a close ally of Elon Musk, to lead the space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Trump said he would announce a new candidate soon. “After a thorough overview of previous associations, I hereby withdraw the nomination of Jared Isaacman to head Nasa,” Trump wrote on his social website. “I will announce a new nominee soon that is in line with the mission and first place in space.” Isaacman, a billionaire-private astronaut who had Musk’s choice to lead NASA, is due for a very delayed confirmation vote in front of the US Senate next week. His removal of consideration surprised a lot in the space industry. Trump and the White House did not explain what led to the decision. Isaacman, whose removal was reported earlier by Semafor, did not respond to a request for comment. The Removal of Isaacman comes a few days after Musk’s official departure from the White House, where the role of the SpaceX CEO as a ‘special government employee’ who leads the effectiveness of the Department of Government, created turmoil for the administration and frustrated some of Trump’s assistants. According to a person familiar with his reaction, Musk was disappointed with the removal of Isaacman. “It is rare to find someone so competent and kind -hearted,” Musk wrote from Isaacman on X and responded to the news about the decision of the White House. Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It was unclear who could use the administration to replace Isaacman. According to three people familiar with the discussions, one name that is flowed is retired. Isaacman, the former CEO of payment processing company Shift4, had a broad space in the space industry, but drew concerns of lawmakers about his ties with Musk and SpaceX, where he spent hundreds of millions of dollars as an early private space fly client. The former nominee donated to the Democrats in previous elections. During his confirmation hearing in April, he tried to balance Nasa’s existing lunar-aligned space exploration strategy with pressure to shift the agency’s focus on Mars and said the US could plan to travel to both destinations. As a potential leader of Nasa’s approximately 18,000 employees, Isaacman had a terrifying task of implementing the decision to prioritize Mars, as NASA spent years and tried billions of dollars to return its astronauts to the moon. The space agency released new details of the Trump administration’s budget plan of 2026 on Friday, which suggested that dozens of space scientific programs were killed and discharged thousands of employees, a controversial review that describes space advocates and lawmakers as devastating to the agency. Montana Republican Tim Sheehy, a member of the Senate Committee on Trade, Science and Transport, wrote on X that Isaacman ‘was a strong choice by President Trump to lead Nasa’ in response to reports on his departure. “I was proud to suggest Jared during his trial and am strongly opposed to attempts to derail his nomination,” Sheehy said. Some scientists have changed the nominee as further destabilizing for NASA, as they face dramatic budget cuts without a confirmed leader being in place to navigate political turmoil between the congress, the White House and the labor agency’s workforce. Harvard-Smithsonian astronomer Jonathan McDowell said on X. “Maybe a good thing for Jared himself, because he is now a Kobayashi Maru scenario,” McDowell is a bit in the scientific fiction scenario where Cadets is an exercise in scientific fiction, but a good thing is a good thing for Jared. No-Win scenario. (With input of Reuters)