Trump Pulls Nomination of NASA Pick

White House officials said Saturday that President Trump is withdrawing the nomination of tech billionaire Jared Isaacman, a close ally of Elon Musk, to run NASA.
Trump made the decision after learning that Isaacman had made political donations to prominent Democrats, the New York Times reports. "It's essential that the next leader of NASA is in complete alignment with President Trump's America First agenda and a replacement will be announced directly by President Trump soon," assistant press secretary Liz Huston said, per CNN.

NASA staff members and advocates had hoped that Isaacman would bring stability to the agency, per the Times, which has been run by an acting administrator since Trump retook office. It's now likely to be several months before NASA has a new boss in place. The president told associates that he found out Isaacman had given money to Democratic Sens. Mark Kelly, a former astronaut, and Bob Casey, who lost his reelection bid last fall, in addition to the California Democratic Party. Isaacman, 42, has twice gone to space on commercial missions that he funded, per NBC News. (The announcement came one day after Musk received a sendoff from Trump.)