Trump Says He'll Pay Astronauts' Overtime Himself

Trump Offers to Pay Astronauts' Overtime

President Donald Trump vowed on Friday, March 21, to personally pay any owed overtime for astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who were stuck aboard the International Space Station for an extended mission that spanned both his and former President Joe Biden's terms.

When asked about the situation by Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy, Trump responded, "If I have to, I'll pay it out of my own pocket."
Here's what happened. 
MORE: Follow Wonderwall on MSN for more top news

NASA's Modest Compensation and Trump's Surprise

During the interview, Peter Doocy informed Donald Trump that NASA had only agreed to provide $5 per day in incidental expenses to the astronauts, totaling around $1,430 for their time in space. 
The president, seemingly taken aback, replied, "Nobody ever mentioned this to me," and added, "Is that all? That's not a lot, for what they had to go through." 
A NASA spokesperson had previously told The New York Times that Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore were considered to be on official federal travel orders, which classified their prolonged stay as a business trip rather than an extraordinary circumstance.

SpaceX Steps in With Rescue Mission

The rescue effort to bring the astronauts back to Earth was undertaken by Elon Musk's company, SpaceX. The mission, launched last month, successfully retrieved Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, whose capsule splashed down in the Gulf of America near Tallahassee, Fla., on Tuesday, March 18. 
Remarkably, their return was marked by a playful twist — dolphins greeted the capsule in the water. 
Reflecting on the delay, Donald Trump commented on the physical strain the astronauts endured: "Even though they're in the capsule up there, the body starts to deteriorate after nine or 10 months and gets really bad after 14, 15 months, with the bones and the blood and all of the things that you've been reporting on very well."

Musk and Trump Criticize Biden's Handling of the Situation

Both Elon Musk and Donald Trump criticized President Joe Biden for the delay in returning the astronauts. Trump underscored Musk's crucial role in the rescue, saying, "And if we don't have Elon, they could be up there a long time," and questioned who else would have acted so swiftly: "who else?" 
Musk previously suggested that "political reasons" were to blame for the extended stay. Trump echoed this sentiment in earlier comments, alleging, "He was going to leave them in space. I think he was going to leave them in space… He didn't want the publicity."

NASA's Delay in the Return Timeline

Back in September, SpaceX launched a Crew Dragon capsule intended to return the stranded astronauts. Though it successfully docked at the station, NASA postponed its journey home. 
It wasn't until four months later that the agency announced the astronauts would remain aboard the ISS until another SpaceX vehicle arrived — this one carrying replacement crew members. The delayed timeline sparked criticism from both Elon Musk and Donald Trump, who saw the situation as a failure of leadership and urgency.