{"id":50744,"date":"2025-12-03T18:35:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T00:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=50744"},"modified":"2025-12-04T01:38:37","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T07:38:37","slug":"nasa-nominee-refuses-to-say-if-musk-was-in-room-when-trump-offered-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=50744","title":{"rendered":"NASA nominee refuses to say if Musk was in room when Trump offered job"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

President Trump\u2019s pick to lead NASA, billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman,<\/u><\/a> refused on Wednesday to say if Elon Musk\u2002<\/u><\/a>was in the room when Trump first offered him the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isaacman \u2014 who was renominated last month after Trump pulled the nomination in May \u2014 appeared before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation on Wednesday for his second confirmation hearing this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his line of questioning, Sen. Ed Markey\u2002<\/u><\/a>(D-Mass.) raised concerns about Isaacman\u2019s personal ties to Musk and said he was not satisfied with the nominee\u2019s responses to a specific question from the first confirmation hearing months ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo I wanted to give you one more chance to set the record straight,\u201d Markey said on Wednesday. \u201cWas Elon Musk in the meeting at Mar-a-Lago when President Trump\u2002<\/u><\/a>offered you the job?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isaacman did not answer the question directly but noted his initial meeting with the president was not in a private setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy first interview with the president \u2014 I think I\u2019ve had several opportunities since to reengage \u2014 was in a ballroom-type setting, senator,\u201d Isaacman said. \u201cThere were dozens of people moving in and out that I would not say were in the meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Markey pressed again, noting \u201cit\u2019s a very simple question\u201d as to whether Musk was in the room when Trump offered the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSenator, my interview, my conversations [were] with the president, and there were dozens of people moving in and out of the room, and I don\u2019t think it\u2019s fair to bring any of them into this matter,\u201d Isaacman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Markey responded: \u201cOnce again, you\u2019re refusing to tell us whether Elon Musk was in the room that day, and that actually makes me think that Elon Musk was in the room that day, but that you understand that it\u2019s a clear conflict of interest that he was there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The progressive senator raised concerns about Isaacman\u2019s ties to Musk, who strongly advocated for Isaacman to lead NASA. Isaacman has led two private missions to space with SpaceX, of which Musk is the founder and chief executive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re asking us to confirm you as the next NASA administrator,\u201d Markey said. \u201cAnd SpaceX gets $15 billion from American taxpayers for its business with NASA.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isaacman noted that he has \u201cno direct or indirect equity exposure to any aerospace company, including SpaceX,\u201d and has disclosed all financial ties to the relevant ethics officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump tapped Isaacman to lead NASA last December, as Musk was preparing to join the White House as a special government employee. Trump abruptly changed his mind and pulled Isaacman\u2019s nomination in May, just days before the Senate was expected to confirm him to the role. Trump at the time cited a \u201cthorough review of prior associations\u201d as the reason for withdrawing Isaacman as the pick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sudden reversal sparked speculation that Isaacman was caught in the crossfire of a feud<\/u><\/a> unfolding between Trump and Musk, who had left the White House a few weeks earlier. Other Trump allies suggested Isaacman\u2019s past campaign contributions to Democrats were a problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump and Musk have since had a detente in their relationship, having appeared together<\/u><\/a> publicly and spoken on the phone multiple times since Musk left his government job leading the Department of Government Efficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

thehill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Trump\u2019s pick to lead NASA, billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, refused on Wednesday to say if Elon Musk\u2002was in the room when Trump first offered him the job. Isaacman \u2014 who was renominated last month after Trump pulled the nomination in May \u2014 appeared before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation on Wednesday for his second […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":50745,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5783],"tags":[687,1230,1441],"class_list":["post-50744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sci-tech","tag-nasa","tag-trump","tag-was"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50744"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50747,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50744\/revisions\/50747"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/50745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}