Donald Trump met with members of the Artemis II crew at the White House on Wednesday (April 29), but the moment was quickly dominated by remarks in which the president appeared to imply he’d have been able to handle life as an astronaut himself.
Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen returned to Earth on April 11 after a ten-day mission that took them on a flyby and loop around the moon.
The astronauts later visited the White House, standing on either side of Trump as he sat at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office and spoke with reporters.
“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.
He added: “We’re very proud of these people. They have unbelievable courage, unbelievable. A lot of other things too, by the way.”
Moments later, Trump turned the conversation toward his own abilities, suggesting he could have qualified for the job. “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 exchange prompted plenty of reaction online, including one X user who said Trump is “living in his own world” based on the comments.
Another wrote: “Why does literally every situation, every conversation, without fail, have to come back around to be about HIM somehow?”
A third compared the moment to something out of Saturday Night Live, suggesting it sounded more like a sketch than a genuine press appearance.
The press conference stayed on a space-related theme as Trump also said government files connected to UFOs would be made public soon.
“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 then said he’d spoken with people who claimed to have witnessed extraordinary things, telling reporters he’d “interviewed people” who said “they saw things you wouldn’t believe”.
He also suggested there is a strong chance another astronaut could set foot on the moon during his second term.
“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.”