CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. —President Trump interrupted a NASA press convention in the present day (Aug. 30) to congratulate the Nancy Grace Roman Area Telescope workforce on a profitable launch. Only a few years in the past, nonetheless, the president tried to cancel this very mission.
In in the present day’s briefing, mission management was going by means of the specifics of Roman’s profitable launch and the science the observatory is predicted to ship when NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman obtained a telephone name. It was the president. The room fell silent, although I may hear Nicky Fox, NASA affiliate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, say, “He is not kidding.”
“Good day, sir,” Isaacman mentioned. He obtained as much as take the decision exterior the room however got here got here again in a number of moments later. “The president of the USA wish to deal with and congratulate everybody on this mission,” he mentioned. “You are stay, Mr. President.”
“I simply wish to thank everyone and congratulate you,” Trump mentioned on the telephone, which Isaacman held as much as the microphone and clearly displayed Trump’s identify. “Boy, it regarded stunning on tv … You might be doing a unbelievable job, and I am supplying you all that cash.”
The president spoke for greater than a minute whereas Isaacman smiled, holding the telephone as much as a microphone for everybody to listen to, and the group of journalists listened intently. The decision was largely congratulatory, however Trump did go on a quick tangent, claiming that he has taken NASA to new heights.
Close to the start of his first time period in 2016, Trump mentioned, he visited NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida and saw that “grass was growing through the cracks in the runways, and there were a lot of cracks. And I looked; that place was closed … It was just literally closed. And now, again, like we are with the country itself, we’re the hottest there is. We’re the hottest. You’re the hottest in space, and we have the hottest country anywhere in the world.”
(To clarify, KSC was only closed for two days in 2016, and that was because of Hurricane Matthew.)
President Trump’s relationship with the Roman mission is more complicated than today’s congratulatory call might suggest, however. Under the Trump administration, the White House has repeatedly tried to cancel or restrict funding for this mission.
Between 2019 and 2021, for example, the president proposed canceling Roman (then called WFIRST) three separate times in three different budget requests. Congress rejected those proposals and kept the mission funded. But then, in April 2025, reports emerged about initial “passback” budget documents that proposed slashing NASA science funding by about 50%. The proposed cuts were deep enough, experts suggested, that the Roman mission would end if they were passed. That didn’t happen either, of course; Congress ended up passing a $24.4 billion NASA budget for fiscal year 2026, keeping the agency’s funding relatively flat.
As Trump made his call today to a room packed with science journalists, this bit of recent budget history did not go unnoticed.
(Image credit: NASA)
A direct question
“Question for the administrator,” SpaceNews reporter Jeff Foust asked Isaacman today following Trump’s call. “It’s great to hear the president call in and show us excitement about the Roman launch. I know the administration in past years, in its first term, proposed zeroing out Roman and also proposed a serious cut in Roman’s budget just last year. What did you tell the administration, and the president, to change his mind and make him so excited about a mission that he once proposed to cancel?”
Isaacman did not directly address the question, focusing instead on the current climate, which he said is very positive.
“I’m incredibly grateful for his support, the space policy, the resources,” Isaacman responded. “Sounds like from that call, maybe even more resources, which is also a great thing for more missions of science and discovery.”