US President Donald Trump has asked Elon Musk and Space X to ‘go get’ two astronauts who’ve been ‘abandoned in space by the Biden Administration’.

On June 5, 2024, NASA’s Boeing Starliner Calypso was launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station for an eight-day round trip to the International Space Station (ISS).

Alas, over six months later and astronauts Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams and Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore are still yet to have returned.

As the Boeing Starliner Calypso approached the ISS, the capsule’s thrusters malfunctioned and NASA ruled it too dangerous for Williams and Wilmore to return to Earth onboard the space vehicle as planned on June 14.

Their return was subsequently postponed and a plan put in place for the pair to travel back with SpaceX Crew-9, however, NASA later announced a further adjustment of the date for Williams and Wilmore to be picked up in a blog post.

On its site, it explained NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 was now ‘targeting no earlier than late March 2025 to launch four crew members to the ISS’.

“The change gives NASA and SpaceX teams time to complete processing on a new Dragon spacecraft for the mission. The new spacecraft is set to arrive to the company’s processing facility in Florida in early January,” it added.

As a result, this meant Williams and Wilmore’s return to Earth would be delayed until March 2025.

Although, Donald Trump has since seemingly called on Elon Musk to get the astronauts back even sooner, taking to his social media platform, Truth Social, last night (January 28) to reveal: “I have just asked Elon Musk and Space X to ‘go get’ the two brave astronauts who have been virtually abandoned in space by the Biden Administration.

“They have been waiting for many months on Space Station. Elon will soon be on his way. Hopefully, all will be safe. Good luck Elon!!!”

Musk shared the post on Twitter earlier today, adding a salute emoji to the post.

Donald Trump has called on Elon Musk (Truth Social/ Donald Trump/ Twitter/ Elon Musk)

Despite Trump accusing ‘the Biden Administration’ of having ‘virtually abandoned’ the astronauts, NASA states it and SpaceX ‘assessed various options for managing the next crewed handover, including using another Dragon spacecraft and manifest adjustments’.

“After careful consideration, the team determined that launching Crew-10 in late March, following completion of the new Dragon spacecraft, was the best option for meeting NASA’s requirements and achieving space station objectives for 2025,” it’s blog post resolved.

UNILAD has contacted NASA for comment.

When you’re the richest person on the planet you can kind of do what you want, which Elon Musk has proved since venturing into politics as Donald Trump begins his second term of presidency.

But not everyone in the ‘billionaire club’ is a fan of Musk’s political career – one of which is Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

The Tesla CEO arguably hasn’t had the best start as the leader of the newly founded Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), with him recently being accused of doing a ‘Nazi salute’ at Trump’s victory rally on inauguration day.

And now, Gates has spoken about Musk’s bold venture into the world of US politics.

“I thought the rules of the game were you picked a finite number of things to spout about that you cared for, focused on a few critical things, rather than telling people who they should vote for,” Gates said during a new interview with The Times.

That’s not him saying he’s never had an opinion. In fact, the 69-year-old mentioned that he thought ‘Brexit was a mistake’ – the UK’s decision to leave the European Union and become independent – ‘but I wasn’t tweeting every day’.

When the tech mogul was asked whether he wished he had gotten involved in politics more in the way that the SpaceX owner has, he sternly replied: “Not at all.”

Explaining how he and Musk are the complete opposite of each other – with Gates concentrating his efforts solely on offering world aid, while Musk focuses on ventures like buying social media platforms and beginning a political career – he said: “I’m ultra-different.”

Bill Gates has said he fears politics as much as another pandemic (John Nacion/Getty Images)

“It’s really insane that he can destabilise the political situations in countries,” he added.

“I think in the US foreigners aren’t allowed to give money; other countries maybe should adopt safeguards to make sure super-rich foreigners aren’t distorting their elections.

“It’s difficult to understand why someone who has a car factory in both China and in Germany, whose rocket business is ultra-dependent on relationships with sovereign nations and who is busy cutting $2 trillion in US government expenses and running five companies, is obsessing about this grooming story in the UK. I’m like, what?”

He went on to explain how Musk has been calling one of the most right wing politicians in the UK, Nigel Farage, as being ‘not right wing enough’.

“I mean, this is insane s**t. You are for the AfD,” he added, speaking of the far-right political movement in Germany. “We can all overreach… If someone is super-smart, and he is, they should think how they can help out. But this is populist stirring.”

Elon Musk was accused of doing a Nazi salute at a rally during President Donald Trump’s inauguration (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Speaking to the UK publication, Gates explained how he now worries about politics as much as another pandemic.

He continued: “The whole political situation with polarisation is very dangerous. Certainly, if you think through my lens of ‘Let’s help the poor countries,’ there is a lot going on.

“The Labour government came in [in the UK] and is less generous on aid than the Tories who came before it. Our problem is an ageing society, tight budgets and a right wing inward turning, with hatred of all foreigners, and hence refusing aid to them even if they’re not in your own country.

“We’re in a challenging situation.”

America is in debt, and it would take more than just a quick whip-around from a few good Samaritans to solve it.

Instead, it would take hundreds of thousands of dollars, from every single American, to solve the problem – and that’s just to break even. I don’t even want to think about how much people would have to spend to get the country safely in the green.

The country’s current level of debt is being tracked by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, which has a horrifying live counter to update users on just how much America owes at any given moment.

The country’s national debt is in the trillions (Getty Stock Photo)

Today (January 29), it stands at almost $36,221,000,000,000.

The reason the national debt is so high is down to a simple imbalance between spending and revenues. Basically, the federal government is spending more than it’s bringing in, and as a result money has to be borrowed to cover the annual deficit.

Some spends are bigger than others – for example, there has historically been increased spending around national emergencies, like wars or the Great Depression.

More recently, the Foundation reports, the deficits are the results of factors such as rising healthcare costs, and a tax system which ‘does not bring in enough money to pay for what the government has promised its citizens’.

It explains: “The U.S. tax system does not generate enough revenues to cover the spending policymakers have enacted.

“This rapidly growing imbalance between revenues and spending leads to higher and higher annual deficits, and the result is an increasing national debt balance.”

Elon Musk has said it’s ‘critical’ to tackle the debt (X/@elonmusk)

The tracker is constantly updating, but a debt of $36,221,000,000,000 means that in order to pay it off, every single American would have to fork out $106,136 – way more than a year’s wage for a huge number of residents.

Elon Musk shared his thoughts on the nation’s debt after the Foundation’s debt tracker was shared on Twitter, writing: “It is critical to take action on this now.”

It’s worth noting that while many Americans would have to save for years to afford a payment of $106,000, that amount would be a mere fraction of Musk’s $417.4 billion net worth. Essentially pocket change for the world’s richest man – though even he couldn’t afford to cover the cost of America’s debt.

Twitter users have shared their shock at the huge amount of debt America is currently in, with one person writing: “That’s crazy! Cut the spending immediately.”

Another simply commented: “That’s so much debt.”

Interest on the debt is only making the huge figure grow, with the Peter G. Peterson Foundation revealing that the US spends $1.8 billion each day on interest alone. The Foundation also warned that interest will ‘more than double’ from where it is today within just 10 years.

Three days have passed since Elon Musk was accused of making a ‘Nazi salute’ on two separate occasions while addressing Trump supporters, and his estranged daughter has touched on the gesture.

On Monday (January 20), President Donald Trump was sworn into office for the second time and afterwards, during the rally at his inauguration, he spoke to his adoring fans.

Vivian Jenna Wilson has called out her estranged father Elon Musk after he addressed a crowd at President Donald Trump’s inauguration (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Of course, the world’s richest man was in attendance. Musk has been named, alongside the former Republican presidential candidate and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, as the head of a new Department of Government Efficiency.

Musk controversially made the gesture on stage at the inauguration, immediately after saying: “Thank you for making it happen. Thank you, my heart goes out to you.”

The billionaire has since denied this was his intention, and other defenders have argued he was doing a Roman salute, or was ‘giving his heart to the crowd’.

Taking to Instagram’s social media platform Threads, Musk’s transgender daughter Vivian Jenna Wilson, wrote: “I’m just gonna say let’s call a spade a f***ing spade. Especially if there were two spades done in succession based on the reaction of the first spade.”

After appearing to make a ‘Nazi salute’, he then repeated the gesture again.

Wilson also posted: “I don’t know why y’all are reacting with such vigor, I’m clearly only talking about card suits. I mean I have ADHD and this was CLEARLY just an accident that people happened to interpret to mean something other than just card suits.

Vivian Jenna Wilson indirectly slammed her estranged dad for his actions on Monday (Instagram/vivllainous)

“After all, there’s no proof I’m not just talking about card suits. Y’know… people assuming that I’m not just talking about card suits just goes to show how dishonest people/the media can be.”

Musk has since hit out at Wikipedia for comparing his gesture to a Nazi salute. Defending his actions, he wrote: “Since legacy media propaganda is considered a ‘valid’ source by Wikipedia, it naturally simply becomes an extension of legacy media propaganda!”

The page in question read: “Musk thumped his right hand over his heart, fingers spread wide, and then extended his right arm out, emphatically, at an upward angle, palm down and fingers together.

He then repeated the gesture to the crowd on his back. As he finished the gestures, he said to the crowd, ‘My heart goes out to you’.

“The gesture was viewed as a Nazi salute or Roman salute by many, including politicians Yolanda Díaz, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Jerry Nadler, as well as historian of fascism Ruth Ben-Ghiat.”

Despite the accusations against Musk, the Anti-Defamation League defended the South African billionaire.

In a statement on Twitter, the organization said: “It seems that [Musk] make an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute, but again, we appreciate that people on edge.”