Donald Trump welcomed the four astronauts of the historic Artemis II lunar flyby mission to the White House on Wednesday, taking a brief pause from self-congratulation to acknowledge their achievements.
The crew - commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen - joined the president in the Oval Office for what was ostensibly a celebratory meeting. Trump praised their "unbelievable courage" before quickly pivoting to his own physical prowess. "To get in there, you have to be very smart, have to do a lot of things physically good. So I would have had no trouble making it, I'm physically very, very good. Maybe a little bit of a problem. We'll have to try it," he mused.
The astronauts had just broken Apollo 13's decades-old distance record, reaching 252,756 miles (406,771 km) from Earth during their 10-day mission. The Orion capsule, dubbed Integrity, made a textbook splashdown off the coast of San Diego on 10 April. Trump had previously congratulated NASA on Truth Social, omitting any mention of his proposed 23% budget cut to the agency - including a 46% reduction for space science initiatives.
The conversation quickly drifted from lunar accomplishments to the Supreme Court's 6-3 decision gutting Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Trump claimed ignorance of the ruling until a reporter mentioned it, then celebrated upon learning it was a "win for Republicans." "I love it, this is very good," he said, suggesting states should redraw their maps accordingly.
On foreign policy, Trump revealed that US-Iran talks would continue "telephonically" rather than face-to-face, and appeared to confuse the wars in Ukraine and Iran. He declared Ukraine "militarily defeated," claiming they had "159 ships. Every ship is underwater... Every one of their planes has been shot down." The president also promised forthcoming disclosure on UFOs, suggesting some of it "is going to be very interesting to people."