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Claims that President Donald Trump dropped his well-regarded NASA nominee over Democratic donations don’t hold up, given his track record of appointing officials from across the political spectrum.
“Trump Is Said to Have Known About NASA Nominee’s Donations Before Picking Him,” read the latest headline from the New York Times about the president’s decision to pull Jared Isaacman’s nomination – as the firestorm continues over the spacewalking billionaire’s close ally Elon Musk’s coinciding break with the president.
Trump had known about many of his circle’s Democratic ties before Isaacson came on the scene, including his own history.
Until the Obama administration, Trump reliably donated to Democrats, including Sen. Chuck Schumer, then-Rep. Anthony Weiner, Hillary Clinton – all of New York – Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, and then-Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.
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Since then, however, Trump has taken an adversarial tack toward Obama and Democrats associated with him, including Hillary Clinton – though he still reserves kind words for former President Bill Clinton.
While many of Trump’s cabinet picks are former congressional Republicans, like Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins of Georgia and Secretary of State Marco Rubio of Florida, many also hail from the left or are known to donate to leftist causes.
Health & Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is the most notable example, given his surname and namesake.
Kennedy, whose father was a New York senator, attorney general and a 1968 presidential candidate until his assassination, was a noted Democrat invested in environmentalism and other liberal causes.
His sister, Kerry, was first lady of New York during her marriage to Andrew Cuomo, while another sister, Kathleen, was lieutenant governor of Maryland under Gov. Parris Glendening – and his uncles, John and Edward, were two of the most famous Democrats in U.S. history.
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But Kennedy and his supporters forged a political bond with Trump and propelled him into the presidency, finding common ground on vaccine risk awareness, dangerous aspects of America’s food processing and transparency of government officials, particularly in the health care sector.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was a Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii who later left her party after repeated barbs from its thought-leaders like Clinton – who accused her of being a Kremlin asset.
And Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent remains in office and has been widely praised by fiscal conservatives for his decisions so far, while also having a history of Democratic donations.
Bessent donated to Obama, Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore, and was also head of Soros Fund Management’s United Kingdom office in the early 1990s. The company, led by George Soros and his son Alex, is often considered the most powerful financial force on the far left.
Treasury Secretary Howard Lutnick – one of the lead negotiators of Trump’s tariff and trade agenda – was also a Democratic donor while head of the financial firm Cantor-Fitzgerald.
Lutnick’s donations have trended toward the GOP in recent years, and he has maintained a longtime friendship with Trump. On the Democratic side of the ledger, Lutnick historically supported the late Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, as well as Schumer and Clinton.
Lutnick has preferred pro-business and anti-regulation candidates and issues moreso than coming from a purely political point of view.
Isaacman, a New Jersey billionaire credited as the first private citizen to spacewalk, saw his May 31 nomination pulled this week after what Trump called “a thorough review of his prior associations,” which many, including in the media, believed referenced his history of Democratic donations.
Isaacman has donated to fellow Garden State-born astronaut Mark Kelly – now the senior Democratic senator in Arizona – as well as former Sen. Bob Casey, Jr., D-Pa., and a SuperPAC aligned with Schumer.
He also supported Rep. George Whitesides, D-Calif., a former NASA chief of staff and congressional freshman who upset a GOP-held swing district north of Los Angeles in 2024.
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