Watch | Trump, Musk say Biden abandoned Williams, Wilmore in space; astronauts deny their claim

US President Donald Trump and Elon Musk have claimed that the erstwhile Joe Biden-led administration “abandoned” two NASA astronauts in space for “political reasons”.

Talking to Fox News in a joint interview, Musk said, “They were left up there for political reasons, which is not good” to which Trump chimed in and said, “They got left in space… He [Biden] was going to leave them there. I think he didn’t want the publicity.”

NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Willmore are stuck in the International Space Station for 258 days now in a mission that was supposed to last only eight days. Their journey back home was delayed due to technical issues with Boeing’s Starliner capsule.

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Musk offers to help

In September, Musk’s SpaceX launched a Crew Dragon capsule to rescue the astronauts, successfully docking at the ISS. However, NASA has repeatedly postponed their return. The billionaire CEO criticised the delays, calling them “ridiculous.”

🚨NEW: President Trump & Elon confirm that Biden intentionally left the astronauts stranded in space.

“To be clear; we’ve retrieved astronauts from the space station before, with success every time.”

That is insane!

They were delaying rescuing our astronauts because of… pic.twitter.com/L4Ip8jsMRv

— Walter Curt (@WCdispatch_) February 19, 2025

Last month, Trump said he had asked Elon Musk’s SpaceX to return two NASA astronauts from the International Space Station.

“I have just asked Elon Musk and @SpaceX to ‘go get’ the 2 brave astronauts who have been virtually abandoned in space by the Biden Administration,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “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!!!”

In the recent Fox News interview, the Tesla CEO said, “At the president’s request, or instruction, we are accelerating the return of the astronauts. We have brought astronauts back from the space station many times before, and always with success.”

Astronauts deny claims

Meanwhile, Williams and Wilmore have rejected Trump and Musk’s accusations against Biden and denied feeling abandoned in space.

“We don’t feel abandoned, we don’t feel stuck, we don’t feel stranded,” Wilmore told CNN and acknowledged that their stay is “a little bit longer than we had expected.”