Trump's Congratulatory Call With the Artemis 2 Astronauts Was Painfully Awkward

The Artemis 2 mission completed a historic lunar flyby on Monday. As the Orion spacecraft flew around the Moon, NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and the Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen made detailed observations of the surface and set the record for the farthest distance from Earth traveled by any human. This momentous day ended on an awkward note when President Donald Trump called to congratulate the crew. The 13-minute conversation, aired as part of NASA’s live mission coverage, felt more torturous than rewarding. What stood out—but was altogether unsurprising—was that Trump sounded like he had only a vague idea of what Artemis 2 is all about. The president kicked off the call with a three-minute rant, during which he spoke broadly about the mission’s accomplishments, the Apollo era, and future missions to Mars—though he implied that he’ll probably die before the U.S. reaches the Red Planet. “We’ll push on to Mars. That’ll be very exciting, I’m waiting for that so much,” Trump said. “I’d love to be here, but maybe we won’t quite make it in terms of timing. But we’ll be up at the Moon, and that’s gonna happen soon.” As he said this, Artemis 2 Pilot Victor