While honoring NASA’s Artemis II astronauts, US President Donald Trump joked with the reporters that he would have had “no trouble” making it to space himself. The Oval Office meeting was meant as a tribute to the four astronauts behind the historic Artemis II lunar flyby, one of NASA’s biggest recent achievements, during which major names joined Trump for a press conference after their 10-day mission around the Moon this month. Among them were Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen.
Donald Trump boasts he’s ‘physically very good’ to make it to space
The Artemis II astronauts broke Apollo 13’s abiding distance space record, traveling 252,756 miles from Earth before returning safely to the Pacific off the coast of San Diego on April 10, and Donald Trump held a meeting to honor them.
Trump opened the event by praising the astronauts and calling them brave. But then he began talking about himself and whether he could handle a mission like theirs, telling the reporters, “To get in there, you have to be very smart, have to do a lot of things physically good. So I would have had no trouble making it, I’m physically very, very good.” He did add, though, “Maybe a little bit of a problem,” but suggested, “We’ll have to try it sometime.”
The press conference shifted from space to political events, but the line that stood out most was Donald Trump’s claim that he could have made the space trip himself.
Nevertheless, visiting the White House marked a very glorious victory for the Artemis II crew after successfully completing a mission that broke records. Trump, for his part, did not let the opportunity pass to boast about his fitness and ability to reach space. With astronauts all around him, he suggested, “We’ll have to try it sometime.”
