NEWS
George Conway Mocks Trump’s Moon Is ‘A Part’ Of Mars Tweet With Call To Fund ‘Windmill Cancer’ Research
President Donald Trump on Friday left many astronomers and space enthusiasts around the world scratching their heads with an incoherent tweet attacking NASA and claiming that Mars “is a part” of the Moon.
“For all of the money we are spending, NASA should NOT be talking about going to the Moon – We did that 50 years ago,” he wrote on Twitter as he flew back to Washington from Ireland.
“They should be focused on the much bigger things we are doing, including Mars (of which the Moon is a part), Defense and Science!” Trump added.
For all of the money we are spending, NASA should NOT be talking about going to the Moon – We did that 50 years ago. They should be focused on the much bigger things we are doing, including Mars (of which the Moon is a part), Defense and Science!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 7, 2019
Late last month, Trump announced he was adding $1.6 billion to NASA’s budget “so that we can return to Space in a BIG WAY!”
“Under my Administration, we are restoring @NASA to greatness and we are going back to the Moon, then Mars,” he tweeted.
Under my Administration, we are restoring @NASA to greatness and we are going back to the Moon, then Mars. I am updating my budget to include an additional $1.6 billion so that we can return to Space in a BIG WAY!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 13, 2019
George Conway, husband to White House senior counselor Kellyanne Conway, slammed the president’s incoherent tweet on Friday by bringing up Trump’s false claim that windmill noise causes cancer.
The Republican attorney tweeted: “we def must go to moon as a part of mars but only as long as we maintain funding for research on windmill cancer”
we def must go to moon as a part of mars but only as long as we maintain funding for research on windmill cancer
— George Conway (@gtconway3d) June 7, 2019
“Hillary wanted to put up wind,” Trump said during a speech at a National Republican Congressional Committee in April as he kicked off an extended riff about the evils of windmills.
“If you have a windmill anywhere near your house, congratulations, your house just went down 75 percent in value,” he falsely claimed. “And they say the noise causes cancer.”
As the Guardian noted in their fact-check of the president’s moon claim: “the moon has not traditionally been regarded as part of Mars.”
The leading theory is that a collision between Earth and a planet-sized entity, many years ago, resulted in debris that eventually became the moon. On average Mars is 140m miles from the moon. Nasa did not immediately respond to a question from the Guardian asking if the moon is part of Mars.
Irrespective of whether the moon is part of Mars (it isn’t), Trump’s announcement was doubly surprising given his previous enthusiasm for a moon trip. His criticism of Nasa for “talking about going to the moon” came just three weeks after Trump championed the idea of a lunar visit.
