Trump: Mars Not a Top Priority, But Would Be Great

President Trump thinks sending people to Mars would be “great,” but it is not at the top of his priority list despite his endorsement of the idea in two major speeches since returning to the White House.

In his inaugural address on January 20 and his address to joint session of Congress on March 4, Trump spoke enthusiatiscally about sending humans to Mars. Elon Musk, his close confidant, was close by both times. Musk is passionate about creating a multi-planetary species by establishing a civilization on Mars.

“We will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars.” — President Trump, January 20, 2025

“We are going to conquer the vast frontiers of science, and we’re going to lead humanity into space and plant the American flag on the planet Mars and even far beyond.” — President Trump, March 4, 2025

In an interview yesterday on Fox News, host Maria Bartiromo asked “why do you want to go Mars so much?”  Trump  replied that it would be a “great achievement,” but it is not at the top of his list of priorities.

“There’s a lot of interest in going to Mars. Is it number one on my hit list? No, it’s not really, but it is something that would be — it would be a great achievement. It would be a great thing if we could do it.

“In fact, did you notice the other night at my speech [to Congress] when I said ‘And we will go to Mars?’ It got one of the biggest applause of the night. I was shocked. It got one of the biggest applause of the night. So there seems to be a lot of interest in it.” — President Trump, March 9, 2025

Trump also pointed to his role in creating the U.S. Space Force in his first term, saying “it’s turned out to be very important” in terms of competing with Russia and China. “Now we’re leading, really leading big in space.”