OMG: Astronauts REFUSE to talk to Trump in AWKWARD call from space
Dear God, you have not seen awkward. until you've watched this phone call. between Donald Trump and the Artemis 2. crew. So proud to be a part of this. program. Well, I have to say I spoke to a very. special person, Wayne Gretzky, who I. think you know, the great one. And I spoke to your Prime Minister and. many other friends I have in Canada. They are so proud of you. And uh you have a lot of courage. I'm not sure if they'd want to do that. I'm not even sure if the great one would. want to do that. To be honest with you,
but you have a lot of courage doing what. you're doing, a lot of bravery and a lot. of a lot of genius. But they're very, very proud of you.
Administrator Aldrin, let me just get a. quick comm check. Make sure you guys are. still on the line and we didn't have a. uh handover. I am. Yes, I am. And uh we. Just brutal. That's almost a full minute. of silence after Trump's usual and. ramblings where these astronauts can't. even bring themselves to dignify what.
Trump is saying by responding. And so. they just sit there and wait for it to. end. And look, I'm lucky enough to say. that I've sat with two presidents now. It's not exactly something that you just. sit quietly and hope passes you by. There was a a moment during my interview. with President Biden back in 2022 that. I've never spoken about publicly, but I. got 15 minutes for the interview, which. I used all of. And then after the. interview, he spoke with me off camera. for another 15 minutes, which was really.
special. And in the moment, I knew it. was special. And there was a point at. which one of Biden's staffers made eye. contact with me while I was speaking. with the president and motioned a little. like got a wrap it up sign. And out. loud, I told that staffer in front of. the president, "If you think I'm going. to be the one to end this conversation, you're out of your mind." And everybody. laughed because like if you have an. audience with the president of the. United States, generally you want to use. it. Which underscores just how unusual. it is that these astronauts have an. audience with the president and yet they.
sit there in silence. And I'm going to. go out on a limb and guess that it's not. because they don't have something to. say. It's not because they don't like. speaking, but rather it's probably got. just a little bit more to do with the. fact of who they're speaking to. And look, is it a surprise? Like these. are people who have dedicated their. entire lives to science. They've worked. their asses off. They're brilliant. They're competent. They're quite. literally everything Trump is not. You. can't fake being smart enough to manage.
in space the same way Donald Trump has. faked everything that he's ever done. He's a con man. He's a fraud, a liar, a. cheat. There is nothing redeeming about. him. He speaks on topics he knows. nothing about. He pretends to be an. expert when he's not on everything. He. and these astronauts have quite. literally nothing in common. Also, think about what Trump is actually. saying here. He's directing his comments. at the one Canadian crew member, Jeremy. Hanson, saying that he spoke to the. Canadian Prime Minister, but we also all.
watched what Donald Trump has been. saying to and about the Canadian Prime. Minister, Mark Carney, for years. We all. watched what Donald Trump has said about. Canada for years. The problem with. Trump's constant attacks on everyone and. everything is that he's lost the. goodwill of everybody he set his sights. on. So, no, Trump doesn't get to just. name-drop Mark Carney and pretend like. it's all good. Mark Carney hates Trump. Canada hates Trump, and for good reason. So, it's especially dense of Donald. Trump to think that he gets to invoke.
the name of anything having to do with. Canada when he has surrendered the. ability to do so in good faith. All of which is sad, by the way, because. this should be a unifying moment for. not just Americans, not just North. America, but the world. And yet, thanks. almost to unilaterally to Donald Trump, the world has never been more divided. Canada is boycotting American goods. NATO is at risk of collapsing. Autocrats. the world over now have a supporter and. a protector in the president of the. United States. The Middle East is.
embroiled in yet another major war. American soldiers are yet again in the. Middle East dying, more than a dozen of. them. And frankly, democracy right here. in the United States is on its last leg. And all of it, everything I just listed, is the direct result of this president. and his party. He is a bucket of cold. water on everything good, decent, and. joyous. It's also worth noting that Donald Trump. already proposed a 23% uh cut for NASA,
along with a raft of other cuts, including cutting the EPA budget by. half, cutting 10 and 1/2 billion dollars. for housing, cutting 8 and 1/2 billion. for K-12 programs, canceling 15 billion. dollars for clean energy, 2 and 1/2. billion for clean drinking water, eliminating 1 and 1/2 billion for youth. job training, 3 and 1/2 billion from the. labor department, 395 million for senior. employment, 775 million in food. assistance grants, and the list goes on. and on. And it's all to raise the. defense budget from 875 billion to 1.5.
trillion. That's right. Every domestic. program, including NASA, that Donald. Trump could get his hands on would be. cut also that he could drop more bombs. in the Middle East. And so he'll talk to. these astronauts as if he's some. champion for space exploration when. their own budget is going to get gutted. because the no new wars president can't. stop dropping bombs. But I want to end. this on a positive note, aside from. everybody's collective disdain for this.
president, which I happen to think is a. net positive. And that is this moment. right here where the Artemis 2 crew had. the opportunity to name some new spots. on the moon. And what followed was a. moment that will go down in the history. books. So I'll leave you with this as a. reminder that while Donald Trump and. Republicans have destroyed so much of. our collective faith in humanity, it. only takes a moment like this to restore. it. Thank you, Houston. We have a couple. more things we'd like to take this. moment for. Um our science team helped us out with a.
couple of. relatively fresh craters on the moon. that have not been previously named. And. our crew would like to propose a couple. of potential names for those items or. those areas. And we spent a bit of time uh this. morning looking out the window and were. able to see them. now both with our naked eye and through. the long lens. And so we feel this is a. good time to uh send this down and a. special special shout out to Kelsey for. helping us with this. The first one we'd like to suggest is.
a named crater in honor of our great. spacecraft, Integrity. And so if you were to. look at Orientale on the far side and. then draw a line straight up to Ohm on. the far side. Relatively in the middle. is an unnamed crater, and we would like. to suggest it be called Integrity in the. future. I second. And the second one, and especially. meaningful for this crew,
is a number of years ago we started this. journey in our close-knit astronaut. family, and we lost a loved one. And there's a there's a feature in a. really neat place on the moon, and it is. on the near side far side boundary. In. fact, it's just on the near side of that. boundary, and so at certain times. of the moon's transit around Earth, you. can we will be able to see this from. Earth. And so we lost a loved one,
her name was Carol. This was of Reed, the mother of Katie. and Ellie. And if you want to find this one, you. look at Glushko, and it's just to the northwest of that. at the same latitude as Ohm, and it's a. it's a bright spot on the moon. And we would like to call it Carol, and you spell that c a. r r o l l.
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