President Donald Trump vowed Friday to personally pay overtime wages for NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who were stranded in space for 286 days—spanning both his and former President Joe Biden’s terms.
"If I have to, I’ll pay it out of my own pocket," Trump, 78, told Fox News' Peter Doocy when asked about the astronauts’ prolonged stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS) since June 2024.
Doocy noted that NASA had only agreed to cover $5 per day in incidentals for the crew, amounting to approximately $1,430 in potential back pay.
"Nobody ever mentioned this to me," Trump responded, appearing surprised. "Is that all? That’s not a lot, for what they had to go through."
A NASA spokesperson previously told The New York Times that Williams and Wilmore were considered “on official travel orders as federal employees,” classifying their extended stay as a business trip.
The astronauts finally returned to Earth on Tuesday after a SpaceX rescue mission successfully retrieved them from the ISS. Their capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida—where they were greeted by dolphins.
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Reflecting on the astronauts’ ordeal, Trump suggested their extended time in orbit posed serious health risks.
"Even though they’re in the capsule up there, the body starts to deteriorate after nine or 10 months and gets really bad after 14, 15 months, with the bones and the blood and all of the things that you’ve been reporting on very well," he said.
He also credited Elon Musk for acting swiftly to facilitate the rescue, questioning who else could have stepped in to prevent a longer delay.
"And if we don’t have Elon, they could be up there a long time," Trump said, adding, "Who else?"
Musk has previously blamed “political reasons” for the astronauts’ prolonged stay, while Trump has claimed Biden was reluctant to bring them back due to potential negative publicity.
"He was going to leave them in space. I think he was going to leave them in space … He didn’t want the publicity," Trump alleged earlier this month.
