The Senate confirmed Democrat-donating billionaire private astronaut Jared Isaacman to run NASA as Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s campaign to keep the job crashed back to Earth.
Isaacman, 42, who has rejected claims he is a close “ally” of President Donald Trump’s one-time adviser Elon Musk, was approved Wednesday in a 67–30 vote.
The triumph capped an unusual comeback after the president withdrew his nomination in May, only to bring it back in November.
Duffy, 54, had been serving as NASA’s acting administrator while simultaneously running the Transportation Department—and had been lobbying hard to stay in the role permanently, even floating the idea of folding the space agency into DOT’s portfolio.
In October, a NASA spokesperson said Duffy had suggested NASA “might benefit from being part of the Cabinet, maybe even within the Department of Transportation,” while insisting he hadn’t said he wanted to keep the job.
Isaacman’s first run at the job imploded in May as Trumpworld turned the vetting into a loyalty test. The May pullback was attributed to concerns about Isaacman’s past donations to Democrats—including Sen. Mark Kelly, since described by Trump as among the “seditious six” lawmakers who encouraged troops not to follow the president’s illegal orders—and the broader Musk blowup that was unfolding at the same time.
In his second confirmation hearing, Isaacman tried to swat away the characterization that he was close to SpaceX founder Musk, saying, “Every story I see that writes about my nomination refers to the Musk ally or the Musk friend.
“It’s funny that in a world where everybody has a phone with a camera on it, there are no pictures of us at dinner, at a bar, on an airplane, or on a yacht, because they don’t exist.”
If Isaacman, as a Democrat supporter, looks like an odd choice for a political world populated by unqualified MAGA types, his résumé helps explain why he has been selected.
He dropped out of high school at 15, built what became Shift4 out of his parents’ basement as a teenager, set a round-the-world speed record as a pilot, and later bankrolled headline-grabbing SpaceX missions—Inspiration4 in 2021 and Polaris Dawn in 2024, which included a private spacewalk.
Duffy’s most significant achievement since being named Trump’s transportation secretary—which has seen him criticized for presiding over airport and shutdown-era travel chaos while chasing culture-war distractions about what air passengers should and shouldn’t wear—is arguably doing 10 pull-ups in an airport.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. managed 20.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House, NASA, and the Transportation Department for comment.
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