Elon Musk lashes out at Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who is also serving as the Acting Administrator of NASA, in a series of unexpected posts insulting Duffy on Elon’s social media platform ‘X’, calling him “Sean Dummy”.
He went on to boldly claim that he has a “2 digit IQ” and posted memes aimed at Duffy after announcing that NASA could potentially be excluding SpaceX from its recently-announced mission to The Moon. Duffy, also being a former member of Congress, happens to be a world champion lumberjack speed climber. Musk used this background to make another clever remark about the Acting Administrator of NASA: “Should someone whose biggest claim to fame is climbing trees be running America’s space program?”
For a little more context, in an interview, Duffy stated that he believes SpaceX (having a $2.9 billion contract to provide the lunar lander astronauts with a ride to The Moon’s surface), is lagging behind schedule. This could potentially throw NASA’s plans of returning to The Moon before China does. Duffy later said he would open up the contract, giving other space companies the ability to compete with SpaceX. “They do remarkable things,” Duffy clarified, “but they’re behind schedule.” “[He] is trying to kill NASA!” Musk added to a post stating that SpaceX is the only company to “successfully human-certify a new orbital space vehicle in the country”.
Musk also reported that close collaborator and loyalist, Jared Isaacman, could possibly be back in the running to lead NASA as Duffy puts NASA on the verge of completely folding the agency under the Transportation Department. In fact, it was recently reported that President Donald Trump (after pulling Isaacman’s nomination not too long before Musk’s very public dissolution with the President), has renominated him to run NASA months after his withdrawal. A source familiar with this matter confirmed that Isaacman has indeed already met with President Trump.
With both Isaacman and Duffy now battling for control of the agency, they also fight a separate battle, winning President Donald Trump’s support.
