Featured Image Credit: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Topics: Donald Trump, NASA, Space, US News
Callum Jones
Topics: Donald Trump, NASA, Space, US News
Donald Trump welcomed members of the Artemis II crew to the White House on Wednesday (April 29), but their celeberation was remarkably overshadowed by the president seemingly suggesting he could make it as an astronaut.
Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen successfully returned to Earth on April 11 following the hugely succesful ten-day voyage which saw them flyby and loop the moon.
The four astronauts joined Trump in the White House on Wednesday, with the Artemis II crew members standing either side of the president as he sat in the Oval Office chair answering questions from the press.
"I don’t know how they do it. I wouldn’t want to do it, but it takes people like this to make our country great," Trump said of the Artemis II crew.
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He added: “We’re very proud of these people. They have unbelievable courage, unbelievable. A lot of other things too, by the way."
The president then went on to suggest he could well make it as an astronaut, as he added: "To get in there, you have to be very smart, have to do a lot of things physically good. So I would’ve had no trouble making it. I’m physically very, very good."
The comments have certainly got a reaction on social media sites such as X, with one saying Trump is 'living in his own world' with the comments.
A second pointed out: "Why does literally every situation, every conversation, without fail, have to come back around to be about HIM somehow?"
While a third noted the comments sounded like they were from a Saturday Night Live skit, rather than a real-life interview.
It was certainly a space-filled press conference on Wednesday as Trump reiterated that governmental files related to UFOs would be released in the near future.
"For some reason, and I guess it's just a reason, it's been in the minds of people for a long time," the Republican president told press.
"I think some of it is going to be very interesting to people."
Trump concluded that segment of the conference by saying he'd 'interviewed people' who told him 'they saw things you wouldn't believe'.
The POTUS also said there's a 'good shot' that another person could walk on the moon during his second term in office.
"We don’t like to say definitely, because then you say, ‘Oh, we failed,'" Trump added.
"So we have a good shot. We’ve authorized it."