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President Donald Trump first ran on a campaign to \u201cmake America great again.” Whether he\u2019s been successful in doing so (or if America was ever great to begin with) is hotly contested\u2014but even as the work continues on our home planet, one NASA leader is encouraging Trump to set his sights even further.<\/p>\n
Newly appointed NASA administrator Jared Isaacman said he thinks Pluto should regain the planetary status that it controversially lost 20 years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cI 100% support President Trump making Pluto great again,\u201d Isaacman told Daily Mail<\/em><\/a> in a new interview. Isaacman cited Pluto\u2019s discovery by Clyde Tombaugh, the farmboy-turned-astronomer who first spotted Pluto from a Kansas observatory in 1930, as one reason it ought to be recognized as a planet.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we owe it to everyone from Kansas and all their great contributions to astronomy and aerospace to rightfully restore that discovery to a planet,\u201d Isaacman said.<\/p>\n Pluto may have been discovered by an American, but that doesn\u2019t mean President Trump controls its planetary status. <\/p>\n That power falls to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), which decided two decades ago that Pluto doesn\u2019t meet the criteria to be a planet.<\/p>\n It may orbit the Sun and be large enough to form a nearly round shape\u2014two of the three qualifications for planetary status, according to NASA<\/a>\u2014but it \u201chas not been able to clear its orbit of debris,\u201d the IAU\u2019s 2006 resolution stated.<\/p>\n As such, the IAU declared Pluto a dwarf planet instead.<\/p>\n Folks have been fighting to reverse Pluto\u2019s demotion from the moment it was decided. That fervor has reached a fever pitch under Trump, with both celebrities and government officials weighing in.<\/p>\n In 2025, Star Trek<\/em> actor William Shatner decried the IAU\u2019s authority over space and asked for Elon Musk\u2019s help in getting Trump\u2019s attention: “We should ask Elon to get the President to sign one of those Executive thingies to make Pluto a planet again,” he posted on X<\/a>, to which Musk replied<\/a>, \u201cI’d support that.”<\/p>\n On the political side, Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) asked Trump to \u201cMake Pluto Planetary Again\u201d in a post of his own<\/a> last February.<\/p>\n Even Isaacman\u2019s predecessor Jim Bridenstine, the NASA administrator during Trump\u2019s first administration, said at a 2019 press event<\/a> that “Pluto is a planet, and you can write that the NASA administrator declared Pluto a planet once again.”<\/p>\n Trump himself has yet to address the demands to \u201cmake Pluto great again\u201d\u2014though judging from his track record of renaming things he has no claim over (does anyone actually call it the Gulf of America?), it wouldn\u2019t be surprising if he tried to exert power over Pluto.<\/p>\n Though Isaacman only became the administrator of NASA in December of 2025, he was first nominated for the position by Trump a year prior in December 2024, when Trump was still only the president-elect. <\/p>\n Though Isaacman passed a Senate Committee vote in April of 2025, his nomination was rescinded by the White House a month later, just a week before he was set to be confirmed by the full Senate.<\/p>\n “After a thorough review of prior associations, I am hereby withdrawing the nomination of Jared Isaacman to head NASA,” Trump posted on social media<\/a> at the time, referring to Isaacman\u2019s previous donations to Democratic politicians<\/a>.<\/p>\n But Trump changed his mind about Isaacman yet again that November, when he nominated Isaacman for the position a second time. Trump\u2019s reasoning for the switch-up isn\u2019t totally clear: He and then-acting NASA administrator Sean Duffy reportedly met with Isaacman<\/a> in the months leading up to the nomination.<\/p>\n On the day of Isaacman\u2019s swearing-in, Trump issued a sweeping executive order<\/a>, which included plans to put astronauts back on the moon by 2028 and to begin progress on a permanent lunar base by 2030.<\/p>\nWhen Pluto got demoted<\/h2>\n
The push to be a planet<\/h2>\n
Isaacman\u2019s rocky history with Trump<\/h2>\n