Trump names Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy as interim head of NASA

By Samantha Waldenberg and Kristen Holmes, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he is directing Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to be the interim NASA administrator.

“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,” the president wrote in a post on Truth Social Wednesday.

“Honored to accept this mission. Time to take over space. Let’s launch,” Duffy wrote on X shortly after the president’s post.

In late May, the president rescinded his nomination of tech billionaire Jared Isaacman to lead NASA, citing a “thorough review of prior associations.”

The shake-up came just days before the Senate was expected to vote on the nomination of Isaacman, who has twice traveled to space on private missions and has close ties to billionaire and SpaceX chief Elon Musk.

“After a thorough review of prior associations, I am hereby withdrawing the nomination of Jared Isaacman to head NASA. I will soon announce a new Nominee who will be Mission aligned, and put America First in Space,” the president said at the time.

CNN has previously reported NASA administrators are typically selected from a pool of scientists, engineers, academics or public servants. Effectively leading the $25 billion agency — and securing funding for projects NASA hopes to accomplish — routinely requires the agency’s chief to work with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

The president, discussing Isaacman’s nomination in a long social media post railing against Musk over the weekend, said that he thought it would have been “inappropriate that a very close friend of Elon … run NASA.”

“I also thought it inappropriate that a very close friend of Elon, who was in the Space Business, run NASA, when NASA is such a big part of Elon’s corporate life,” the president wrote in the post.

Musk, formerly a close Trump ally who led the Department of Government Efficiency, departed the administration in early June, and his relationship with the president has broken down in recent weeks following a disagreement over Trump’s sweeping agenda package.

Musk and Duffy sparred at a March cabinet meeting, according to a source familiar, when the Transportation secretary accused the tech billionaire of trying to fire air traffic controllers.

Duffy is not the only member of the president’s Cabinet to take up an additional job outside of their traditional purview. Secretary of State Marco Rubio currently serves as interim national security adviser and national archivist.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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