Billionaire and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has escalated his feud with secretary of transport and interim NASA administrator Sean Duffy — by using a homophobic slur.
On Monday, Duffy appeared on Fox News to announce that he’s “in the process of opening” the space agency’s contract with SpaceX to deliver the first astronauts to the lunar surface in over half a century up to Musk’s competitors as its timeline continues to slip.
“I think we’ll see companies like Blue get involved, and maybe others,” Duffy said, referring to Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. The Amazon cofounder happens to be one of Musk’s most reviled nemeses.
“We’re going to have a space race in regard to American companies competing to see who can actually get us back to the Moon first,” Duffy said, saying that SpaceX is “behind schedule” and that NASA won’t “wait for one company.”
Not one to sit out a feud, Musk didn’t take Duffy’s comments lying down.
“Also, one question,” Musk wrote, affixing it with a GIF of a viral clip of a Ugandan TV host infamously asking trans activist Pepe Julian Onziema in 2012 the question: “Why are you gay?” (Uganda has since introduced a law that punishes same-sex intimacy with life in prison or the death penalty.)
Duffy married his wife, Rachel Campos-Duffy, in 1999, roughly a year after meeting her during the filming of the reality TV show “Real World: Boston.”
Musk’s latest missive is the kind of childish and bigoted outburst we’ve come to expect from the richest man in the world. Musk has used his enormous social following for discriminatory commentary for many years now, from shockingly sexist tweets to furthering outlandish antisemitic conspiracy theories.
The news comes after Musk accused Duffy — who he called “Sean Dummy” — of “trying to kill NASA” and having a “two-digit IQ.”
Musk’s personal pick for NASA administrator, SpaceX space tourist and fellow billionaire Jared Isaacman, was unceremoniously thrown under the bus by the Trump administration earlier this year, around the time Musk’s feud with president Donald Trump escalated into a public flame war.
The White House has yet to announce its official pick for NASA administrator ten months into Trump’s second term.
Instead, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that Duffy has been advocating “putting NASA under his purview at the transportation department,” effectively reinterpreting the agency’s original mandate.
Meanwhile, Isaacman and his team have been “huddled in a war room,” per the WSJ, taking steps to curry favor with the Trump administration by making a $1 million donation to a MAGA-related fund.
“I’m grateful to all the supporters and to President Trump for the consideration, and most of all, I just wish to see NASA continue to shine as the world’s most accomplished space agency,” Isaacman said in a statement.
NASA has suffered greatly since Trump was sworn in earlier this year, with leadership looking to slash budgets and reduce headcount. Most recently, the agency’s historic Jet Propulsion Lab laid off 550 employees, representing more than ten percent of its entire workforce.
The White House’s proposed budget for NASA’s fiscal year 2026, if enacted, could slash the space agency’s science budget in almost half, in what the Planetary Society called an “extinction-level event.”
The government shutdown has raised the stakes even higher, with scientists continuing to loudly advocate for the existence of NASA’s current science directorate.
“This is a turning point,” famed science communicator and Planetary Society CEO Bill “Science Guy” Nye said during a press conference earlier this month. “This is a key moment in the history of space exploration.”
Whether Musk insulting Duffy on X-formerly-Twitter will change the situation remains to be seen. While his personal pick may have little chance of being sworn in as Duffy’s replacement, Musk’s SpaceX continues to be a major contractor for the agency and the Pentagon.
But how much sway Musk still has in Washington, DC, roughly five months after claiming to have left politics for good, is anybody’s guess.
Instead of responding in kind, Duffy took the high road.
“Love the passion,” he tweeted in response to Musk advocating for SpaceX. “The race to the Moon is ON. Great companies shouldn’t be afraid of a challenge.”
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