Former Trump Nasa nominee suggests ties to Elon Musk caused his ouster

WASHINGTON – Financial technology billionaire Jared Isaacman appeared to suggest US President Donald Trump withdrew his nomination to run Nasa due to his close ties to Mr Elon Musk amid the SpaceX chief executive officer’s falling out in Washington.

“There was obviously more than one departure that was covered on that day,” Mr Isaacman said on an episode of the All-In Podcast released on June 4. “There were some people that had some axes to grind, I guess, and I was a good visible target.”

The White House announced on May 31 that

it planned to nominate a new Nasa administrator

to replace Mr Isaacman, just days before the Shift4 Payments Inc chief executive officer was set to receive his final confirmation vote in the Senate.

Mr Isaacman said he received a call on May 30 informing him that “the President has decided to go in a different direction.”

Mr Isaacman’s ouster was driven by Mr Sergio Gor, the head of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, according to people familiar with the matter.

Mr Gor and Mr Musk had butted heads during the billionaire’s tenure running the Department of Government Efficiency, the people said, and Mr Gor moved to have Mr Isaacman’s nomination withdrawn after Mr Musk pulled back from the administration.

“I don’t blame an influential adviser coming in and saying, ‘Look, here’s the facts, and I think we should kill this guy,’” Mr Isaacman said, without naming any particular person. “And the President’s got to make a call and move on.”

“President Trump is the ultimate decision maker on who has the privilege of serving in his historic administration,” White House spokesperson Liz Huston said. “Any claims to the contrary are completely false.”

Mr Isaacman had found support across swaths of the space industry and in Congress and was also a close ally of Mr Musk after spending an undisclosed sum of his own money on two SpaceX missions.

Mr Trump said the decision to pull Mr Isaacman’s nomination had been made after a “thorough review of prior associations.”

Separately, a White House official, in an email to Bloomberg, pointed to multiple past donations that Mr Isaacman had made to Democrats.

Mr Isaacman added that he didn’t think his past donations were the reason the administration pulled his nomination, saying that information had long been in the public domain. 

“It was certainly disappointing, but the President needs to have his person that he counts on to fulfil the agenda,” Mr Isaacman added. BLOOMBERG