Jared Isaacman is set to appear before Congress again on Wednesday, and this time the president’s pick to run NASA likely will face more questions about the Trump administration’s plans for the beleaguered space agency.
Isaacman, a billionaire friend of tech tycoon Elon Musk, has been in this position before. President Donald Trump first tapped Isaacman for NASA chief about a year ago after Trump won the 2024 election. But Trump rescinded the offer this spring amid rising tensions with Musk — and after Trump learned that Isaacman previously had donated money to Democratic politicians.
Now Isaacman is back, in part because Musk and Isaacman have returned to Trump’s good graces. The president renominated Isaacman to the position last month after Isaacman — who made his fortune from a payment processing company called Shift4 Payments — donated $1 million in June to MAGA Inc., a Trump-aligned political action committee.
Little else has changed about Isaacman’s credentials. While not an astronaut by training, Isaacman conducted the first-ever commercial spacewalk last year after blasting into orbit on a rocket made by SpaceX, Musk’s aerospace company.
