LEILA FADEL, HOST:
For many Americans, it's been an exciting week watching Artemis II fly by the moon and start heading home. One person who doesn't seem especially enchanted, however, is President Trump. Here's NPR's Katia Riddle.
KATIA RIDDLE, BYLINE: For a point of comparison, let's revisit President Richard Nixon's famous phone call to Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin as they stood on the moon's surface.
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RICHARD NIXON: Hello, Neil and Buzz. I'm talking to you by telephone from the Oval Room at the White House.
RIDDLE: The year was 1969. Massive protests were unfolding over the Vietnam War. Americans were still reeling from the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. But in addressing the astronauts, Nixon tried to remind Americans of their better selves and show the country a path out of the darkness.
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NIXON: Because of what you have done, the heavens have become a part of man's world. And as you talk to us from the sea of tranquility, it inspires us to redouble our efforts to bring peace and tranquility to Earth.
RIDDLE: Earlier this week, President Trump placed his own call to the crew of Artemis II. He did not bring the same gravitas to the occasion.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Humans have really never seen anything like - quite like what you're doing in a manned spacecraft.
RIDDLE: Trump meandered in his comments to topics including the possibility, in his first term, of cutting NASA's funding...
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TRUMP: Are we going to have it be revived, or are we going to close it down? And I...
RIDDLE: ...Space Force, a military branch he established...
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TRUMP: And that was my baby. That was a very important one. And...
RIDDLE: ...And then, apparently, since astronaut Jeremy Hansen is Canadian, to other noteworthy citizens of that country.
TRUMP: 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.
RIDDLE: Trump's seemingly lackluster response to Artemis may be more than just an oversight, says Jordan Bimm, a science historian at the University of Chicago.
JORDAN BIMM: There is, like, a telling silence or disinterest in this. It doesn't really align with his brand or his style.
RIDDLE: Bimm says science and unity - those are not things that Trump sees as necessarily advantageous for his presidency. In fact, they might work against him. Bimm compares Trump's reaction to Artemis to that of Operation Warp Speed from his first administration. That was the effort that helped accelerate the COVID vaccine and prevent millions of deaths globally.
BIMM: Another huge win for the Trump administration that he doesn't like to talk about because there is this sort of incongruency with the base.
RIDDLE: In fact, just a few days after Artemis II launched, the Trump administration released their budget for 2027. They proposed cutting billions from NASA. Casey Dreier is with The Planetary Society, a group that does advocacy for space science and NASA.
CASEY DREIER: It's kind of an insult to the four astronauts who are risking their lives to return the United States to deep space, while at the same time, the agency that is putting them there is being targeted for being dismantled.
RIDDLE: In request for comment on this story, the White House sent a statement pointing out that the administration celebrated the astronauts, writing that, quote, "President Trump called them, congratulated them on making history and invited them to the White House," unquote. Casey Dreier says while he's disappointed in the administration's lack of fiscal support for NASA, he doesn't mind Trump's minimal engagement.
BIMM: That may not be the worst thing for the long-term benefit of Artemis. We want to keep Artemis as nonpartisan as possible.
RIDDLE: Dreyer observes that this moment has the potential to bring people together in order to marvel at what humans can achieve through science. That's a power, he says, that transcends any one party or president.
Katia Riddle, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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