Donald Trump has been adamant that the United States will soon return to the moon. Since 2017, he’s been talking a big talk about space, promising that NASA astronauts would be back on the moon by 2024 and exploring Mars soon after.
Well, that didn’t happen. But, with China making big strides in space exploration, Trump is determined not to be left in the (lunar) dust. And so, NASA administrator and former ESPN commentator Sean Duffy has promised that not only will American astronauts soon be heading back to the moon, but a moon base will be under construction by 2027!
Speaking on Fox Business, Duffy laid out Trump’s plans for the moon. When asked about how he’d “beat China”, he said:
Sean Duffy: "If we go to the south pole of the moon, we can set up a base. We want to put up fission power. We think we can have longterm stays on the south pole of the moon." pic.twitter.com/3KB1gntDGc
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 13, 2025
“We’re going to go back at the first part of next year. Four astronauts going out to the moon, going round it and coming back. That’s the first time in 54 years we will have done that. That’s Artemis 2. Artemis 3, a little over a year, a year and a half after that, we’re going back to the moon and we’re going to land.
At the south pole of the moon you have ice. Ice is water, ice is oxygen, ice is life. If we go to the south pole of the moon, we can set up a base. We want to put in fission power. We think we can have long-term stays on the south pole of the moon.”
It’s vanishingly unlikely that Duffy’s plans will come to pass. The last few years have been littered with overly confident people saying a moonbase or a mission to Mars is just around the corner, only for budgetary, logistical, and bureaucratic problems to get in the way.
Trumpy’s on the moon
It’s also very easy to roll your eyes and wonder why the Trump administration isn’t focused on fixing America’s earthbound problems like the cratering economy, collapsing public services, the healthcare apocalypse, and so on.
But, honestly, if the Trump administration wants to pour hundreds of billions of dollars into a moon base, then I say let them. I’d much rather taxpayers’ money be spent on that than continuing to arm Israel, bailing out Argentina, or simply being gently filtered into the pockets of the corrupt administration.
So roll on Trump Base 1, and why not send Trump himself up there to cut the ribbon? Rocket back to Earth optional.
