Maddow Blog-As Trump taps Sean Duffy for NASA, space agency's future is increasingly in doubt

[LetMyPeopleVote]

It’s hard not to wonder whether NASA and the United States’ space program will survive the Republican president's second term.

Six months ago: Trump uses his inaugural address to boast that the United States “will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars.”

Now: Trump puts the future of the U.S. space program in doubt. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-07-10T13:02:33.548Z

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-taps-sean-duffy-nasa-space-agencys-future-increasingly-doubt-rcna217951

In government, the practice is generally known as “dual-hatting,” which refers to one official taking on the responsibilities of more than one job. Donald Trump has embraced the tactic with a bit too much enthusiasm lately — Secretary of State Marco Rubio, for example, has been tasked with four jobs — and the president added to his list this week. NBC News reported:

Trump ... appointed Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy as the interim administrator of NASA, making Duffy the latest administration official to serve in multiple roles. Trump said in a Truth Social post announcing the appointment that Duffy may serve only ‘for a short period of time.’

About a month ago, billionaire Jared Isaacman was poised to be easily confirmed as the new NASA administrator, but the president abruptly pulled his nomination at the last minute after concluding that Isaacman wasn’t enough of a far-right partisan. Trump said he’d announce a new nominee soon after, but that hasn’t yet happened......

Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at the Planetary Society, which advocates for research and exploration in space, recently said the White House’s budget plan represents an “extinction-level event” for one of the world’s leading science agencies.

Nearly six months ago, in his second inaugural address, the president declared, “We will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars.”

Maybe Trump changed his mind about his space ambitions, or maybe he envisions a privatized system. Either way, it’s hard not to wonder whether NASA and the United States’ space program will survive the Republican’s second term.