US President Trump says he will pay out of his pocket to astronauts who got back from space

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said that he will pay the astronauts for their overtime stay in space out of his own pocket after learning that astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore got $5 per day for their extra time spent in space.

During an interaction with media persons in the Oval Office, Fox News journalist Peter Doocy brought to his attention that the two astronauts “didn’t get any overtime pay for all that extra time”. “They got USD 5 a day per day. For 286 days, that is $1,430 in extra pay”. He asked what the administration could do for them, to which Trump responded, “Well, nobody’s ever mentioned this to me. If I have to, I’ll pay it out of my own pocket…That’s not a lot for what they had to go through”.

.@POTUS is going to make sure the stranded astronauts receive the overtime pay they deserve after they were stranded in space for nine months! pic.twitter.com/IZlt3ucgMG

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) March 21, 2025

Trump then thanked Elon Musk for bringing the astronauts back. “I want to thank Elon Musk… and if we didn’t have Elon, they could have been up there a long time”.

“While in space, NASA astronauts are on official travel orders as federal employees,” reported the New York Times, citing Jimi Russell, a spokesman for NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate, said via email. He added that the astronauts aboard the International Space Station receive no overtime, holiday or weekend pay.

Russell said that while their transportation, meals and lodging are covered, they receive a daily “incidentals” allowance, which is a per diem payment in lieu of reimbursements for travel expenses, like other federal employees on work trips. The incidental allowance for travel to any location is $5 per day, Russell added.

In his remarks, Donald Trump reiterated the fire Musk is under and emphasised, “He’s (Musk) gone through a lot, what they’re doing to him. And these people are going to be caught, and they’re going to be prosecuted…I’ll tell you, there’s going to be no leniency, and there’ll be no pardons”.

US President Donald Trump earlier said on Friday that people who are caught sabotaging Tesla cars may stand a chance to go to jail for up to twenty years. He made the announcement in a post on Truth Social.

Since Tesla CEO Elon Musk started serving as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Tesla vehicles, dealerships and charging stations have been vandalised and faced protests in recent weeks. (ANI)