{"id":591613,"date":"2026-04-07T16:49:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T16:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/591613\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T16:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T16:49:08","slug":"trump-tells-artemis-ii-crew-he-saved-nasa-despite-trying-to-slash-agencys-budget-artemis-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/591613\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump tells Artemis II crew he saved Nasa despite trying to slash agency\u2019s budget | Artemis II"},"content":{"rendered":"

The crew of Artemis II phoned home from above the moon on Monday night after their record-breaking day<\/a>, to find Donald Trump musing about how he had saved the US space agency, Nasa, from closing down and telling the astronauts how much they deserved the honor of the president seeking their autographs.<\/p>\n

The intermittently uncomfortable 12-minute Earth-to-space call, facilitated by the Nasa<\/a> administrator and Trump acolyte, Jared Isaacman, featured a lengthy period of silence, several references by the president about his friendship with the retired Canadian ice hockey player Wayne Gretzky, and how \u201cAmerica is the hottest country in the world right now\u201d.<\/p>\n

But it was Trump\u2019s questionable claim to have rescued Nasa during his first presidency that raised eyebrows and left the Artemis crew awkwardly tossing a microphone to each other in zero gravity just hours after setting a record for the farthest-traveled humans<\/a> from Earth.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, I had a decision to make in my first term, and the decision is: \u2018What are we going to do at Nasa?\u2019\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre we going to have it be revived, or are we going to close it down? And I had very little hesitation. And it\u2019s really great to have somebody like Jared involved, because it really makes it much easier for me. But it was not even a question in my own mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve spent what we had to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Trump has directed more resources to the space agency\u2019s human spaceflight program, especially Artemis, he has consistently tried to slash its overall spending. After Trump\u2019s second presidency began in early 2025, the White House proposed a 24% cut to the Nasa budget to $18.8bn, the lowest it would have been in a decade, prompting experts to denounce \u201cextinction-level\u201d reductions<\/a> to the agency\u2019s science programs.<\/p>\n

Congress, in a rare show of bipartisanship, united to oppose the cuts<\/a>, and in January it passed an almost fully funded budget of $24.4bn.<\/p>\n

But on 3 April, two days after Artemis II blasted off for the moon<\/a> on the first mission carrying humans beyond lower Earth orbit in more than 50 years, Trump unveiled his 2027 Nasa budget request with another huge cut \u2013 this time a 23% reduction<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Democrats have promised to fight the \u201cmorally bankrupt\u201d move while Isaacman said in a statement<\/a>: \u201cI strongly support the president\u2019s fiscal policies and mandate to drive efficiency.\u201d Isaacman also urged Nasa workers \u201cto leave the politics for the politicians and remain focused on the mission\u201d.<\/p>\n

During his call to Artemis on Monday, Trump praised the crew for their \u201cincredible journey into the stars\u201d and said they had \u201cinspired the entire world\u201d as the US worked towards building a permanent lunar base and eventually sending humans to Mars.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmerica will be second to none in space and everything else that we\u2019re doing, and we will continue to lead the whole thing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Trump exalted Nasa\u2019s Apollo program which previously landed astronauts on the moon \u2013 \u201cbut that was 50 years ago\u201d, he said, \u201cand at long last America is back. And America is back in many ways stronger than ever before \u2013 we\u2019re the hottest country anywhere in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump had an exchange with the Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, who applauded what he saw as an \u201cintentional decision\u201d by the US \u201cto lead by example and to allow other countries like Canada to share our gifts and help you achieve these mutually beneficial goals\u201d.<\/p>\n

It prompted Trump to reflect on conversations he said he had with Gretzky, a \u201cvery special person\u201d; the Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney; and \u201cmany other friends I have in Canada\u201d about how proud they were of Hansen.<\/p>\n

There followed more than a minute of awkward silence, ended by Isaacman jumping back in for a \u201ccomms check\u201d \u2013 and Trump repeating his stories about Gretzky, Carney and the Canadian people.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes Mr President, we heard that,\u201d the Artemis II<\/a> commander, Reid Wiseman, said.<\/p>\n

The president then invited the four crew members to an Oval Office reception some time after a scheduled splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on Friday that will conclude their 10-day mission.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll ask Jared to bring you over, and I\u2019ll ask for your autograph, because I don\u2019t really ask for autographs much, but you deserve that,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been pretty busy, also, as you know, but I will absolutely find the time, and we\u2019ll get together, and I\u2019m going to be giving you a big salute on behalf of the American people and beyond that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Artemis II pilot Victor Glover replied: \u201cWhen you want us, we will be there,\u201d and thanked the president for his \u201creally special\u201d call.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just want to say thank you to all of you for this,\u201d Glover continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the thrill and honor of a lifetime to have been on this journey. Today was amazing, but this three-year journey has been amazing, and it was made possible by the American people and the Canadian people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The crew of Artemis II phoned home from above the moon on Monday night after their record-breaking day,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591614,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[64,63,128,285],"class_list":{"0":"post-591613","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}