Trump names Transportation Secretary Duffy as interim NASA administrator amid Musk feud
Duffy will temporarily take over the post that has been in the spotlight due to Trump's feud with billionaire Elon Musk, who wanted his close ally Jared Isaacman to lead the space agency.
'Sean is doing a TREMENDOUS job in handling our Country's Transportation Affairs ... He will be a fantastic leader of the ever more important Space Agency, even if only for a short period of time,' Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trump named Isaacman, a billionaire private astronaut, to be the NASA administrator in December, before abruptly withdrawing his nomination in May, in a decision that angered SpaceX-owner Musk.
While at the time the White House did not provide an explanation for pulling Isaacman's nomination, Trump has since said it was 'inappropriate' to have named Isaacman as NASA administrator, considering Musk's business with the space agency.
After Trump's announcement on Wednesday, Isaacman called it 'a great move' and wished Duffy well.
'NASA needs political leadership from someone the President trusts and has confidence in,' Isaacman said on X.
Trump's announcement came as Politico reported that more than 2,100 senior-ranking NASA employees are set to leave their jobs under a push by the administration to shed staff through early retirement, buyouts and deferred resignations.
Under Trump's administration, the US space industry and NASA's workforce of 18,000 have been whipsawed by looming layoffs and proposed budget cuts that would cancel dozens of science programs.
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Crediting divine intervention Trump's chief of staff, Susie Wiles, who as his then-campaign chief was with him at the rally, said in a podcast interview released last week that Trump walked away from the shooting believing he had been spared for a reason. 'I would say I think he believes that he was saved. I do. And he would never – even if he thought it before, I don't think he would have admitted it. And he will now,' she told Pod Force One. She too credited divine intervention. The chart, she noted, was always the last chart in the rotation. 'And it was always on the other side. So to have him ask for that chart eight minutes in and to have it come on the side that is opposite caused him to look in a different direction and lift his head just a little because it was higher. And that just doesn't happen because it happened. It happened because I believe God wanted him to live.' As a result, she said, when Trump says things that are perfunctory – every president says, 'God bless America' – 'well, it's more profound with him now and it's more personal.' She also credited the attack with helping change public perceptions of Trump during the campaign. 'For the American public to see a person who was such a fighter as he was that day, I think as awful and tragic as it might have been, it turned out to be something that showed people his character. And that's helpful,' she said. 'You know I have an obligation to do a good job I feel because I was really saved,' Trump told Fox News Friday. 'I owe a lot. And I think – I hope – the reason I was saved was to save our country.' Roger Stone, a longtime friend and informal adviser, noted that Trump has had other brushes with death including a last-minute decision not to board a helicopter to Atlantic City that crashed in 1989 and another near-assassination two months after Butler when US Secret Service agents spotted a man pointing a rifle through the fence near where Trump was golfing. Stone said he's found the president to be more serene and more determined after the attempt on his life in Butler. 'He told me directly that he believed he was spared by God for the purpose of restoring the nation to greatness and that he believes deeply that he is protected now by the Lord,' he said. Ralph Reed, chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition agreed. 'I think for people who know the president it is commonly believed that it changed him. I mean how could it not? Imagine if you were who he was and if you don't turn your head at that instant,' he said. 'He knew he was lucky to be alive.' Given how close Trump came to a very different outcome, Reed said it's hard not to feel on some level that the hand of providence protected him for some greater purpose. 'And there are people that I've talked to who said they were confident that he would win for that reason. That there must have been a reason.'
