Donald Trump Asks If He Can Join NASA Mission, Calls Himself ‘Very Smart’ and ‘Physically Strong’

It seems Donald Trump continues to project himself far beyond the traditional role of President of the United States and often presents a personality that extends into various imagined roles and capabilities, along with a headline-grabbing social media presence.

The former real estate mogul has also drawn attention for controversial statements and unusual claims. These keep him firmly in the public spotlight.

One moment, Trump shares an AI-generated photo of himself dressed in white biblical-style robes with a red sash. The next, he is talking about becoming an astronaut.

Donald Trump joked on Wednesday that he would have “no trouble” becoming an astronaut while hosting the Artemis II crew at the Oval Office on April 29.

After praising the astronauts for their “unbelievable courage,” Trump said, “To get in there, you have to be very smart, and you have to be physically strong, so I would have had no trouble making it.

“Maybe a little bit of a problem. We’ll have to try it sometime. Is a president allowed to go up in one of these missions?” Trump then delivered remarks to honor the NASA team. Their mission was the first time humans had traveled to the Moon since the Richard Nixon administration.

According to AOL, Trump hosted the crew of Artemis II on Wednesday, more than two weeks after they completed their historic lunar flyby.

The lunar mission took place from April 1–11, 2026. It was a crewed flyby around the Moon and marked the first crewed flight under NASA’s Artemis program. It was also the first time humans traveled beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17.

Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen returned to Earth on April 11. They had completed a highly successful 10-day mission.

The diverse group had personal accomplishments beyond the major victory. Glover was the first person of color, and Christina Koch was the first woman from the Canadian Space Agency on this mission.

Meanwhile, Jeremy Hansen was the first Canadian citizen on the mission. Reid Wiseman was the oldest person to travel beyond Earth orbit and around the Moon.

The 79-year-old president joined the group of astronauts in the Oval Office. They stood on either side of him as he took questions from 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,” Donald 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.”

Critics slammed Trump’s comments, and several users claimed that he was reportedly “living in his own world” and acted like an attention seeker. Few others supported him and claimed his remarks were nothing but “pure boss energy.”

“Why does literally every situation, every conversation, without fail, have to come back around to be about HIM somehow?” one X user wrote.

A third remarked that the statements sounded more like a Saturday Night Live sketch than a real press briefing. The highly publicized briefing also raised discussions about space, where Donald Trump claimed government files related to UFOs would be released soon. He said there had long been public interest in the topic and that the material could be interesting.

According to UNILAD, he also said he had spoken with people who claimed to have seen unexplained phenomena, adding that they told him they had “seen things you wouldn’t believe.”

Finally, Trump said there was a “good shot” that another person could walk on the Moon during his second term in office.

He added that he avoids saying anything is too robust or definitive so as not to risk claims of failure, saying, “We don’t like to say definitely, because then you say, ‘Oh, we failed.’ So we have a good shot. We’ve authorized it.”