Billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman is confirmed as new NASA chief
NBC13 hrs
Senate Confirms Jared Isaacman as Youngest NASA Chief
Is Isaacman the bold leader NASA needs, or a billionaire funneling taxpayer money to Musk's empire?
Above: Jared Isaacman in the Russell Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on Dec. 3, 2025. Image credit: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
The Spin
Republican narrative
NASA finally has a leader who builds rather than bureaucratizes. Isaacman brings entrepreneurial speed and real spaceflight experience to an agency that's been stuck in a decades-long committee-driven decline. America needs someone who treats Mars as a deadline, not a dream, and understands this is the most important technological race since the Cold War.
Democratic narrative
Handing NASA to a SpaceX customer creates a direct pipeline of federal dollars to Musk's company while sidelining climate science. This billionaire with zero experience managing large organizations will prioritize nationalist spectacle over actual scientific missions. The merger of government and capital is textbook fascism dressed up as innovation.