Trump repeatedly asks NASA administrator why we can't go straight to Mars
On Friday, President Trump commemorated the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 with a photo opportunity in the Oval Office, where he spent a lot of time questioning his administration’s own policy for deep space human exploration. Surrounded by NASA officials, Moonwalkers, and lawmakers, Trump repeatedly asked NASA’s administrator, Jim Bridenstine, why astronauts couldn’t go straight to Mars instead of going to the Moon first.
“To get to Mars, you have to land on the Moon, they say,” Trump asked Bridenstine, according to a recording provided by Politico. “Any way of going directly without landing on the Moon? Is that a possibility?"
Bridenstine, who was standing to the right of the president in the Oval Office, replied that the Moon is a “proving ground” for going to Mars, allowing NASA to test out technologies needed for keeping people alive for extended periods of time on the Red Planet. “When we go to Mars we’re going to have to be there for a long period of time, so we need to learn how to live and work on another world,” said Bridenstine.
The Trump administration’s stated goal for deep space human exploration is to go to the Moon. The very first space policy directive that Trump signed in December of 2017 was to send people back to the Moon to establish a sustainable presence there. “Beginning with missions beyond low-Earth orbit, the United States will lead the return of humans to the Moon for long-term exploration and utilization, followed by human missions to Mars and other destinations,” the directive states.
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/trump-repeatedly-asks-nasa-administrator-why-we-cant-go-straight-to-mars/ar-AAEzT14?li=BBnb7Kz
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Who would Trump take with him?
Yeah, that's 
