President Trump Praises Roman Space Telescope After Repeated Attempts to Cancel It

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman received an unexpected call from President Donald Trump during a press conference held Sunday to discuss the recent successful launch of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. The president, speaking via speakerphone, offered congratulations to the agency for the observatory's launch, a mission he had repeatedly attempted to defund and cancel during his term.

"I just want to thank everybody, and congratulate you. Boy, it looked beautiful on television," President Trump said during the call, according to Space.com. "Jared is doing a fantastic job, you are doing a fantastic job, and I’m supplying you all that money." The Roman Space Telescope, a $4 billion observatory equipped with advanced infrared vision and a wide field of view, launched on August 30 at 7:25 a.m. ET. Its mission is to survey vast areas of the sky to unravel mysteries such as dark energy and dark matter.

However, the telescope's journey to the launchpad was fraught with peril. The Roman mission faced multiple termination attempts by the Trump administration. In April 2025, the White House Office of Management and Budget proposed slashing NASA's science program by half, which would have resulted in the cancellation of at least 41 missions. Leaked budget documents indicated that only the Hubble and Webb space telescopes would have continued to receive funding, effectively ending the Roman mission which was nearing completion at the time. The proposed budget would have fully terminated the project, which had been in development for years. Although the administration's official budget did not outright cancel the telescope, its funding prospects remained uncertain. For 2026, the White House allocated $156.6 million to Roman's development, a significant reduction from the funding it received in 2025. Fortunately, Congress ultimately averted the proposed budget cuts, preserving the mission.

A History of Cuts and a Newfound Support

President Trump's efforts to cancel the Roman mission predated these budget proposals. Between 2019 and 2021, during his first term, the administration made three separate attempts to terminate the project. Despite this history, the president sought to associate himself with the mission's success during the impromptu call.

During the call, Trump reminisced about a visit to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in 2016, describing the facility as dilapidated. "And I looked; that place was closed … It was just literally closed. And now, again, like we are with the country itself, we’re the hottest there is," he stated. "We’re the hottest. You’re the hottest in space, and we have the hottest country anywhere in the world." This statement comes after significant efforts to reduce funding for NASA, including proposed cuts that could have jeopardized the agency's future.

The president's recent engagement with NASA has been notable. Earlier on Friday, President Trump visited NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, where he presented the Artemis 2 crew with the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. During this visit, he also signed an executive order to establish the nation's first U.S. Space Academy, aimed at training the aerospace workforce. When asked about the president's congratulatory remarks on a telescope he had previously tried to cancel, Administrator Isaacman expressed gratitude. "I’m incredibly grateful for his support, the space policy, the resources. Sounds like from that call, maybe even more resources, which is also a great thing for more missions of science and discovery," Isaacman responded, highlighting a potential for increased future support for NASA missions.