Bonkers Plan Calls for Making Elon Musk Head of NASA

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and former president Donald Trump's relationship has been rocky, to say the least. The pair have butted heads for years.

But now that Musk has somehow emerged as Trump's number-one fan, the situation is looking dramatically different.

When asked by Reuters earlier this week whether he would consider appointing Musk to a cabinet or advisory role, Trump had a straightforward answer.

"He's a very smart guy," he said. "I certainly would, if he would do it, I certainly would. He's a brilliant guy."

Musk appeared to be amused by the suggestion, tweeting "I am willing to serve" in response. An AI-generated picture appended to the tweet imagined the mercurial CEO as the head of the fictitious "Department of Government Efficiency."

To some, that wouldn't be going far enough. In a divisive opinion piece published in the Wall Street Journal, historian and author Arthur Herman argued that Musk should be made the head of — no, we are not kidding — NASA.

"The right choice for Mr. Musk’s talents and vision is obvious," Herman wrote.

Needless to say, it's a harebrained idea that could doom the space agency. For one, Musk's well-documented hatred of government intervention — despite his space venture relying on billions of dollars worth of government contracts — should disqualify him.

And even ignoring the preposterous conflict of interest of running the agency responsible for bankrolling SpaceX, there's the sheer lack of time he'd be able to commit to running NASA. Musk is already spread incredibly thin across his ventures, and he's garnered a reputation for poor time management, causing some of his ventures to atrophy while his attention is taken up by micromanaging other businesses.

In other words, Musk has far too much on his plate already — so appointing him to a high-up government position likely wouldn't end well.

According to Herman, Musk would "breathe new life into an agency struggling to rediscover its sense of national purpose."

But whether NASA even needs to do that remains debatable. The agency has pushed hard in its renewed efforts to return humans to the Moon as part of its Artemis program and has been rallying behind the development of cutting-edge space observation technologies, like the agency's groundbreaking James Webb Space Telescope.

Herman also cites the ongoing Starliner crisis as a reason for NASA being "in shambles."

"NASA staff are weighed down by a bureaucratic agenda that seems more interested in meeting diversity, equity and inclusion requirements than advancing America in space," he wrote, referencing a common regressive talking point.

Needless to say, arguing that the space agency's downfall is due to its DEI practices is downright racist and highlights the kind of rhetoric Musk himself has used during his own racist tirades on X-formerly-Twitter.

While it's fair to say that NASA has been bogged down by bureaucracy, pinning its failings on its DEI practices perhaps highlights Herman's real intentions: pushing a private industry-first and highly politicized, pro-Trump agenda.

Is Musk really the man for the job, who could "inspire a new generation of explorers and entrepreneurs," as Herman suggests?

Given his abhorrent behavior and impulsive way of thinking, Musk could prove highly destabilizing if he were in charge of the space agency.

And that's the very last thing NASA needs right now: a polarizing figure that would prove far more of a source of distraction than some much-needed consistency in leadership.

Besides, Musk's mocking tone in his recent tweet about being "willing to serve" suggests he'd be unlikely to accept such an offer anyway.

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