The Artemis 2 mission completed a historic lunar flyby on Monday. As the Orion spacecraft flew around the Moon, NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and the Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen made detailed observations of the surface and set the record for the farthest distance from Earth traveled by any human.
This momentous day ended on an awkward note when President Donald Trump called to congratulate the crew. The 13-minute conversation, aired as part of NASA’s live mission coverage, felt more torturous than rewarding. What stood out—but was altogether unsurprising—was that Trump sounded like he had only a vague idea of what Artemis 2 is all about.
Trump says he may die before we reach Mars
The president kicked off the call with a three-minute rant, during which he spoke broadly about the mission’s accomplishments, the Apollo era, and future missions to Mars—though he implied that he’ll probably die before the U.S. reaches the Red Planet.
“We’ll push on to Mars. That’ll be very exciting, I’m waiting for that so much,” Trump said. “I’d love to be here, but maybe we won’t quite make it in terms of timing. But we’ll be up at the Moon, and that’s gonna happen soon.” As he said this, Artemis 2 Pilot Victor Glover appeared to whisper something to Commander Reid Wiseman, though we can only imagine what was said.
At the end of those long three minutes, Trump finally asked the astronauts a question: What is the most unforgettable part of this historic day? Wiseman answered on behalf of the crew, highlighting several of the surface features they observed, the eclipse, and seeing Mars in the distance.
“That’s fantastic,” Trump said before launching into another rant about how he had to choose whether to “revive” NASA or “close it down” during his first term, which elicited looks of exaggerated surprise from the astronauts. The president said he had “very little hesitation” about keeping the agency running, then suddenly segued into the U.S. Space Force.
“And then, of course, we have Space Force,” Trump said. “And Space Force is very much related to what you’re doing. And that was my baby. That was a very important one. And uh, it’s turning out—it’ll turn out to be truly one of the most important, I believe, decisions I’ve ever made. So we’re very proud of Space Force, and we’re very proud of all of you.”
Mr. President, do you copy?
Apparently out of questions to ask, Trump said: “Does anybody else have anything to say? A lot of people listening.” Mission Specialist Christina Koch—whose name Trump mispronounced as “cock” at the beginning of the call, by the way—grabbed the mic and said it was powerful to see the first glimpses of Earth again after Orion emerged from behind the Moon.
This elicited a couple more questions from Trump, who asked how it felt to be out of communication with NASA for nearly 45 minutes and then asked if they noticed a big difference between the near and far sides of the Moon.
Jeremy Hansen answered the second question, then took a moment to thank the president on behalf of Canada and express his admiration for U.S. space leadership and NASA’s international cooperation. Trump responded by saying that he recently spoke with Canadian former pro hockey player Wayne Gretzky, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, and “many other friends” he has in Canada.
“They are so proud of you. And you have a lot of courage. I’m not sure they’d want to do that. I’m not even sure if The Great One [referring to Wayne Gretzky] would want to do that, to be honest with you.” We can assume Trump is talking about going to the Moon here.
The astronauts responded with some awkward smiles and positive gestures, but there was a full minute of dead air before Wiseman called down to Administrator Isaacman for a comms check. Isaacman immediately responded that he was still on the line.
“Back over to you, Mr. President,” Isaacman said in an attempt to rouse Trump. Perhaps he nodded off.
The president said he may have gotten cut off, then repeated his earlier remarks about Wayne Gretzky and Prime Minister Carney. “I’m not sure if you heard me say that, but it was very nice,” Trump added.
“Yes, Mr. President, we heard that. And we do love our Jeremy Hansen, we love all our Canadian astronauts,” Wiseman said.
Trump then invited the astronauts to the Oval Office and said he would ask the crew for an autograph, because they “deserve it.” This got a laugh from Koch, Wiseman, and Glover. The president added that he’s “pretty busy” but said he’ll make time to see them.
That about sums up the call. If you’re looking for a good cringe, it’s worth watching. More importantly, it exposed the gap between operational leadership at NASA and political stewardship of the agency under Donald Trump. The fact that the president could only speak superficially about what is arguably the biggest accomplishment of his term so far undercuts the American space leadership he claims to champion.
