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U.S. President Donald Trump has appointed a former reality star who rose to fame on an MTV show as interim chief of NASA.
Sean Duffy, the transportation secretary, has been appointed as Interim Administrator of NASA after Trump rejected an Elon Musk ally for the job.
Announcing the appointment on Truth Social, Trump said Duffy would make a “fantastic leader,” even if only for a short period.
- Trump appointed Sean Duffy, a former MTV reality star, as interim NASA chief, praising him as a "fantastic leader."
- Duffy gained fame for a hotel room striptease on MTV's 'The Real World: Boston' but went on to a successful political career.
- Trump rejected Elon Musk ally Jared Isaacman for NASA head after learning he was a Democrat and close to Musk's space business.
- Duffy retains his role as transportation secretary while leading NASA amid budget cuts and major workforce reductions.
- Trump's 2026 NASA budget proposal cuts funding by 25%, ending key programs like the Gateway lunar space station.
Donald Trump has appointed Sean Duffy as the head of NASA
Image credits: U.S. Department of Transportation
“I am pleased to announce that I am directing our GREAT Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, to be Interim Administrator of NASA,” Trump wrote.
“Sean is doing a TREMENDOUS job in handling our Country’s Transportation Affairs, including creating a state-of-the-art Air Traffic Control systems, while at the same time rebuilding our roads and bridges, making them efficient, and beautiful, again.
“He will be a fantastic leader of the ever more important Space Agency, even if only for a short period of time.”
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Duffy, who will still hold his transportation secretary role, shot to prominence in the late 1990s after he performed an improvised striptease routine in a hotel room on MTV’s The Real World: Boston.
The reality TV show spent several months filming the lives of seven strangers who were thrust into a shared living space.
Image credits: The White House
At the time, Duffy, then in his twenties, made headlines for a risqué moment in which he was filmed performing a striptease, using only a small towel to cover himself.
But the striptease did not affect his political career, as just years later in 2002, he was appointed and re-elected to serve as the district attorney of Ashland County, Wisconsin.
Duffy later served as a member of Congress between 2010 and 2019 before he was confirmed as transport secretary when Trump took office in January.
🚀 Honored to accept this mission. Time to take over space. Let’s launch. 🇺🇸🛰️ pic.twitter.com/ZBoEgPnwz4
— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) July 10, 2025
After starring on The Real World, Duffy starred in Road Rules: All Stars, where he met his wife, Rachel Campos-Duffy.
The pair are America’s first and longest-married reality TV couple. They have been married for 25 years and share nine children.
Duffy welcomed his appointment to lead NASA in a post on X, saying he was “honored.”
“Honored to accept this mission,” he wrote. “Time to take over space. Let’s launch.”
Trump rejected a Musk ally for the role after finding out he was a Democrat
Image credits: Kevin Carter/Getty Images
It comes after Trump rejected Musk ally Jared Isaacman for the top job, withdrawing the billionaire’s nomination.
In a post on Truth Social, understood to be referring to Isaacman, Trump said he was surprised to learn that he was not a Republican.
“Elon asked that one of his close friends run NASA and, while I thought his friend was very good, I was surprised to learn that he was a blue blooded Democrat, who had never contributed to a Republican before,” Trump wrote.
“Elon probably was, also. I also thought it inappropriate that a very close friend of Elon, who was in the Space Business, run NASA, when NASA is such a big part of Elon’s corporate life.”
Image credits: Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images
In the same post, Trump criticized Musk, saying he had “gone off the rails” and was a “train wreck” for announcing he would be launching his America Party.
The pair, once close allies, have been trading insults on their respective social media platforms ever since Musk criticized Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Duffy’s appointment comes at a turbulent time for the space agency, with Trump’s proposed budget for 2026 slashing 25% of funding for NASA—meaning total funding would fall from $24.8 billion to $18.8 billion.
Image credits: Richard Tribou/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
The massive reduction is accompanied by planned workforce cuts of up to 5,000 staff and major program eliminations, such as the cancellation of the Gateway lunar space station.
Politico reports that 2,145 senior-ranking NASA employees are set to leave as the Trump administration pushes to shrink the federal workforce.
Those senior-ranking employees are included in the 2,694 civil staff who have agreed to leave the agency under government offers, documents obtained by Politico show.
Many of them serve in science or human space flight—NASA’s core mission sets—while others work in IT, facilities management, or finance.
America chose this path. The nation wanted a f*****t leader who would punish minority groups and allow more wealth to be siphoned to the elites, which is why they elected a billionaire who had made clear he had zero respect for democracy. The democracies will move on without America and America will became the western Russia.
America chose this path. The nation wanted a f*****t leader who would punish minority groups and allow more wealth to be siphoned to the elites, which is why they elected a billionaire who had made clear he had zero respect for democracy. The democracies will move on without America and America will became the western Russia.
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