WASHINGTON: The Senate on Wednesday confirmed billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman to be NASA administrator on Wednesday, placing him atop the agency after a monthslong saga where President Donald Trump revoked his nomination as part of a feud with tech billionaire Elon Musk.
Isaacman, who has promised to bring a business-minded approach to the space agency, was confirmed in a bipartisan vote, 67-30.
He will take over after an unusual confirmation process upended by the Republican president’s oscillating and at times tumultuous relationship with prominent tech leaders who backed his campaign, most notably Musk, the Tesla CEO who is a close ally of Isaacman.
Trump picked Isaacman last year but withdrew the nomination in May after feuding with Musk over the administration’s policies on issues such as electric vehicles and the performance of Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
Musk was the largest contributor of donations to Trump’s 2024 campaign and after the administration took office, he assembled a team for DOGE that blitzed through the federal government’s departments, contracts and critical infrastructure. The monthslong operation led to major cuts to federal contracts focused on foreign aid, global health and mass layoffs of federal workers.
But the effort did not lead to significant reductions in the federal budget deficit, the stated goal. Musk also feuded with some senior Cabinet officials and, eventually, Trump himself. Musk is also CEO of the space flight company SpaceX and has ambitions for humans to colonize space.
Trump nominated Isaacman for the job again in November. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy had been serving as NASA’s interim administrator until a permanent head was in place.
The mysterious turnabout from Trump
Isaacman is the founder of Shift4 Payments, a payment processing and technology solutions company based in Pennsylvania. He is also the co-founder of Draken International, a Florida-based aerospace company. He has done business with Musk’s Starlink and other ventures tied to the fellow billionaire.
During Isaacman’s second confirmation hearing in December, Sen. Gary Peters, D-Michigan, pressed Isaacman to “explain what happened to make President Trump reconsider the decision to pull your nomination and what assurances you may have provided with Elon Musk and SpaceX would not create a significant conflict of interest in this role.”
Isaacman replied that he “wouldn’t even want to begin to speculate why the president nominated and then renominated me.” He said he pledged to be free of conflicts of interest in his role. In a June letter, Isaacman had promised to resign from his private sector posts should he be confirmed as NASA administrator.
Republicans have welcomed some of Isaacman’s proposals and some new senators strongly advocated for his confirmation. But many Democrats balked at Isaacman and Trump’s plans, including the proposed costs of some projects and overall priorities for the agency.
“For nearly 70 years, the United States has been at the forefront of space exploration. President Trump knows how critical it is to reinvigorate NASA as we aim to reach new heights in the greatest frontier ever known, and that’s why he chose exactly the right man for the job,” Sen. Tim Sheehy, an aerial firefighter, former Navy SEAL and close ally of Isaacman, said in a statement.
Sheehy, R-Montana, added that he was confident Isaacman “will work tirelessly to ensure America wins the 21st century space race.”