A Cabinet secretary is reportedly on thin ice with the White House after breaking an already fragile truce with Elon Musk to jockey for the leadership of NASA.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has turned White House officials against him for appearing to put his own bid to become NASA chief ahead of the administration’s interests, insiders told NOTUS.
“Everyone, and I mean everyone in the West Wing, is furious at him,” one source told the outlet.
Duffy, 54, wants to cling to his role as NASA administrator, a post that President Donald Trump handed him in an acting capacity in July, and fold the agency into the Department of Transportation, according to NOTUS and the Wall Street Journal.
“There are people in the White House who believe Duffy has made unnecessary chaos rather than just accept that his time is in the sunset,” an administration official told NOTUS.
But it’s not just Duffy who has his eyes on the helm of the widely revered space agency. Musk pal Jared Isaacman, a 42-year-old commercial astronaut and billionaire, has reportedly been working behind the scenes to revive his failed bid to become NASA administrator earlier this year.
The Journal reported that both Duffy and Isaacman’s staff have been ringing up their contacts in the Trump administration, including the president himself, to advocate for their candidates. The world’s richest man, for his part, has been blasting “Sean Dummy” in a string of X posts.
Sean Dummy is trying to kill NASA! https://t.co/cP0RxP09rt
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 21, 2025
Trump yanked Isaacman’s nomination to the top NASA job in May amid a widening rift with Musk that culminated in a dramatic and highly publicized falling out. The pair have since struck a shaky ceasefire that White House insiders now worry is being jeopardized by Duffy, who peeved Musk by calling on space companies to overtake SpaceX in the race against China.
“I want to get to the moon in this president’s term, so I’m going to open up the contract,” Duffy told CNBC. “I’m going to let other space companies compete with SpaceX, like Blue Origin.”
“Blue Origin has never delivered a payload to orbit, let alone the Moon,” Musk retorted on X. “SpaceX is moving like lightning compared to the rest of the space industry.”
Duffy responded that he loved the “passion” from the tech entrepreneur.
“The race to the Moon is ON. Great companies shouldn’t be afraid of a challenge. When our innovators compete with each other, America wins!” he said.
Love the passion.The race to the Moon is ON.Great companies shouldn’t be afraid of a challenge.When our innovators compete with each other, America wins! https://t.co/P8gYX7R0mp pic.twitter.com/mAoGG1bq8c
— NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy (@SecDuffyNASA) October 21, 2025
But Musk was clearly incensed, attacking Duffy in a series of posts, including one where he used the meme “Why are you gae?”
“Sean has overplayed his hand,” a source close to the White House told NOTUS. “Not so much in dealing directly with the president, but more so with the West Wing and the rest of the administration. He has spent the last couple of weeks being a cowboy, and it’s caught up to him.”
White House spokesperson Liz Huston told the outlet that Duffy is a “trusted, valued, and loyal member of the president’s team.”
“As for the NASA Administrator nomination, it’s solely up to President Trump to make a decision and it will be announced by him directly when it’s made,” she said.
The Transportation Department did not immediately return a request for comment on Wednesday. An automated response from NASA stated that the agency was closed due to a lapse in government funding. The Daily Beast also reached out to the White House for comment.
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