This handout photo provided by SpaceX and Polaris on Sept. 15, 2024, shows Jared Isaacman, mission commander, stepping out of the manned Polaris Dawn mission’s “Dragon” capsule after it splashed down off the coast of Dry Tortugas, Florida, after completing the first human spaceflight mission by non-government astronauts of the Polaris Program. (Polaris Program/AFP via Getty Images)
(JTA) — President Donald Trump has withdrawn his nomination of Jared Isaacman, a Jewish entrepreneur who has traveled privately to space himself, to helm NASA.
Trump nominated Isaacman for the role in December and a confirmation hearing was scheduled for this week. But Trump rescinded the nomination on Saturday, citing what he said on Truth Social was a “thorough review of prior associations” ahead of the hearing.
Trump privately told allies that he was distressed that Isaacman had donated to Democrats in the past, according to news reports. The New York Times reported that Isaacman had informed Trump about those donations personally months earlier.
Trump’s decision to rescind Isaacman’s nomination came as Elon Musk, an ally whose SpaceX rocket last year allowed Isaacman to become the first private citizen to undertake a spacewalk, exited the White House after playing an influential role in the start of Trump’s second term as president.
Isaacman, a high school dropout and billionaire, has not made his Jewish identity a major part of his public persona. Last year, he and his father Don, who is on Shift4’s board, were among dozens of people on a gala committee for Chabad of Hunterdon County, the Hasidic movement’s outpost in their area of New Jersey. In 2010, Isaacman donated the opportunity to be “Fighter Pilot for a Day” on one of his planes to a Chabad auction.
Isaacman would not have been the first Jewish NASA director. President George H.W. Bush selected Daniel S. Goldin, an engineer who had been active in the movement to free Soviet Jewry, to helm the organization in 1992.
