KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — The White House confirmed on Saturday afternoon that President Donald Trump has pulled his nomination of Jared Isaacman as NASA’s next administrator.

Last month, the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation confirmed the 42-year-old tech entrepreneur and commercial astronaut as NASA’s new administrator.

The full U.S. Senate needed to vote in favor of the billionaire to make it official.

However, there were reports late Saturday afternoon that Trump pulled his nomination of Isaacman.

White House spokeswoman Liz Huston confirmed to Spectrum News on the phone that Isaacman’s nomination had been pulled by the president.

“The Administrator of NASA will help lead humanity into space and execute President Trump’s bold mission of planting the American flag on the planet Mars. It’s essential that the next leader of NASA is in complete alignment with President Trump’s America First agenda and a replacement will be announced directly by President Trump soon,” stated Huston in a follow-up press release that she shared with the media.

When asked for comment, NASA shared with Spectrum News Huston’s press release.  

The president has not made an official announcement about the news.

No reason was given as to why Isaacman’s nomination was pulled or who Trump’s next pick will be.

During his confirmation hearing in April, Isaacman stated he wanted to develop crewed missions to both the moon and Mars at the same time and wanted to increase scientific discovery missions.

This comes at a time when the Trump administration has proposed severe cuts to NASA’s budget.

The budget proposes the retirement of the Artemis moon rocket, among other cuts.