President Trump’s former nominee to lead NASA, Jared Isaacman, said he’d be open to launching a congressional campaign after his nomination to join the second Trump administration was withdrawn.
The billionaire said he’d run as a Republican and that he’d consider serving under Trump in a different capacity — or under another Republican president in the future.
“I don’t think my story in politics is over,” he told The Free Press.
“Once I got over some of the initial intimidation factor of being in the arena, I felt like I could actually help and contribute. There will be something else,” Isaacman added.
The commercial astronaut’s nomination for NASA was retracted in May after Trump cited his ties to former White House adviser Elon Musk.
A deeper search conducted by Sergio Gor, the director of the White House’s Office of Presidential Personnel, revealed Isaacman has contributed to Democratic campaigns.
“Elon asked that one of his close friends run NASA and, while I thought his friend was very good, I was surprised to learn that he was a blue blooded Democrat, who had never contributed to a Republican before,” Trump said in a July Truth Social post.
“Elon probably was, also. I also thought it inappropriate that a very close friend of Elon, who was in the Space Business, run NASA, when NASA is such a big part of Elon’s corporate life,” he added.
Instead, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was announced as the interim administrator for NASA on Wednesday.
However, Isaacman said if he were confirmed to lead the space agency, he would not have pulled strings for Musk.
“Dude is the richest guy in the world. To think I would risk everything I’ve accumulated in this world to funnel contracts to Elon, how insane is that?” he said.
“But that’s also the world we’re living in,” Isaacman continued.
In his interview with The Free Press, he pushed for more diverse candidates in future elections, days after Musk officially launched the “America Party” and committed to backing midterm election campaigns through the third-party system.
“I think we need more people who have broad experience at large organizations — backgrounds in tech — and have no interest in financial enrichment or power accumulation but are just trying to help the nation and repay a debt many of us owe to this country,” he said. “That’s my motivation.”
