Trump sends Americans into mass panic by naming Sean Duffy as interim NASA administrator
Trump made the unexpected announcement on his Truth Social platform Wednesday night.
"I am pleased to announce that I am directing our GREAT Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, to be Interim Administrator of NASA," wrote Trump. Sean is doing a TREMENDOUS job in handling our Country's Transportation Affairs, including creating a state-of-the-art Air Traffic Control systems, while at the same time rebuilding our roads and bridges, making them efficient, and beautiful, again."
"He will be a fantastic leader of the ever more important Space Agency, even if only for a short period of time," the president continued. "Congratulations, and thank you, Sean!"
Bemused Americans were left in disbelief by Trump's latest move.
"That's like giving a child the keys to the car," one person tweeted. Another added: "@grok does Sean Duffy have any actual qualifications to run NASA?
A third wrote: "There's nothing like an experienced appointee. And there's definitely nothing like an experienced appointee in this administration!"
"Now we can look forward to planes and satellites falling out of the sky," agreed a fourth. Duffy himself also responded to the post.
"Honored to accept this mission," he said. "Time to take over space. Let's launch." This is not the first time that Trump has asked one of his cabinet members to double up on roles.
Shortly after Michael
Waltz
, Trump's former National Security Advisor, stepped down, Secretary of State Marco Rubio filled the slot.
'I am pleased to announce that I will be nominating Mike Waltz to be the next United States Ambassador to the United Nations," Trump wrote on Truth Social back in May. "From his time in uniform on the battlefield, in Congress, and, as my National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz has worked hard to put our Nation's Interests first."
"In the interim, Secretary of State Marco Rubio will serve as National Security Advisor, while continuing his strong leadership at the State Department. Together, we will continue to fight tirelessly to Make America, and the World, SAFE AGAIN," Trump added.
Duffy has been the spotlight for much of the year as he attempted to solve the complicated problem of updating the country's outdated aviation equipment. In May, Duffy voiced his concerns that the FAA was allegedly buying "old equipment from eBay."
"What you see in Newark is going to happen in other places across the country," Duffy warned while appearing on NBC News' Meet the Press on Sunday after the
New Jersey
airport was thrown into chaos after planes had been losing contact with air traffic control on multiple occasions since August.
In May, Duffy was also criticized for continuously blaming Joe Biden's administration for the various airport issues
. During a press conference, Duffy side-stepped questions
over his contradictory statements.
During the question-and-answer session, a reporter pressed Duffy on why the first Trump administration did not make changes within aviation if "these issues have been present for years and years and years." Scrambling to answer, Duffy replied, "I think what we saw is the cracks that you are now seeing today were highlighted actually over the last four years."
"We were seeing more and more of it," he added, while continuing to accuse Biden of improperly allocating funds from the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill to address aviation issues. Duffy also seemingly revealed his biases when he accused Biden of failing to act during the COVID lockdown despite Trump still being in office.
"The last administration knew this was a problem," Duffy said during the press conference. "During COVID, when people weren't flying, that was a perfect time to fix these problems."
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