A power struggle over who will become the permanent head of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is spilling into the public, with Elon Musk attacking the acting administrator, Sean Duffy, the transportation secretary.<\/p>\n
Mr. Duffy has been running the space agency since July but his appointment runs out at the end of the year. President Trump initially nominated<\/a> billionaire Jared Isaacman, a confidant of Mr. Musk, for the role at the start of his administration but suddenly withdrew the nomination in July after Mr. Musk\u2019s messy exit from the administration.<\/p>\n Now it appears that both men are attempting to become the administrator. Supporters of both have been calling contacts in the Trump administration to make their pushes, the Wall Street Journal reports<\/a>, while noting that Mr. Duffy and his staff interviewed Mr. Isaacman this week ahead of a possible nomination.<\/p>\n It is unclear if Mr. Musk is among those making calls but he hailed Mr. Trump\u2019s initial nomination of Mr. Isaacman and shared his nomination announcement on X, writing, \u201cCongratulations.\u201d<\/p>\n Now Mr. Musk is insulting Mr. Duffy in a series of posts on his X account.\u00a0In one post he claimed Mr. Duffy has a \u201c2 Digit IQ.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Musk also posted a poll<\/a> on his X account asking, \u201cShould someone whose biggest claim to fame is climbing trees be running America\u2019s space program?\u201d The post references Mr. Duffy\u2019s history of winning tree-climbing speed competitions.<\/p>\n The poll came after Mr. Duffy went on Fox News and said SpaceX, which Mr. Musk runs, has fallen behind in its efforts to develop the Starship as a lunar lander and could be dropped as a contractor for the upcoming Artemis moon mission.<\/p>\n