Trump takes credit for billionaires’ race to space

Former President TrumpThe Donald TrumpCalifornia event center abandons its plan to host Gaetz, Greene Murkowski’s “America First” tour: Trump “threatened to do a lot” for those who stand up to him. Alaska GOP endorses Murkowski’s main challenger MORE in an interview on Sunday took credit for the space race between billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff BezosJeffrey (Jeff) Preston Bezos JEDI May Be Gone, But DOD’s Cloud Program Wasn’t Out Of The Woods IRS controversies over present and past haunt lawmakers’ discussions Night Defense: JEDI Suppressed The Pentagon defends the exit of Bagram | Soon the reform of military justice MORE, claiming that the Space Force creation set it off.

During an appearance on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures”, the host Maria bartiromoMaria Sara Bartiromo Tucker Carlson claims NSA leaked private emails to reporters. noted that Branson became the first billionaire to venture into space on Sunday and asked Trump what he had to say in response, adding that Space Force was the first new military wing created since 1947.

“So we’re very proud of that,” Trump said. “It was almost 75 years old. It was the Air Force. And now we’ve made Space Force, which is going to be so vital. And we didn’t just do it. I mean, it’s operational and really great. “

“Russia has it. And China has it. And they were well advanced on us. And I started it,” he said.

Bartiromo also asked Trump why he thinks billionaire CEOs focus on space, pointing to Bezos, a frequent critic of Trump, who has resigned as CEO of Amazon to focus on his aerospace company. Blue Origin.

“I’m just saying, better them than me,” said the former president. “I’d rather see Richard on the plane today than me on the spaceship. But, if – Richard loves it, and Bezos loves it. And a lot of rich guys love space, okay? You explain that. someday. But they do. love space. “

“They love to send rockets. And I allowed them to do it. In fact, I said to my people, ‘Let the private sector do it,’” Trump continued.

“These guys want to come up with billions of dollars. Let’s rent them facilities, because, you know, you need certain facilities to send rockets, and we have these facilities. We have the best facilities.” he added.

“And now, because of what I’ve done, we’re leading the pack in space from afar.”

Branson, the founder of Virgin Galactic, successfully returned to Earth after a journey to the outer reaches of space that lasted around 90 minutes on the SpaceShipTwo Unity space plane.