WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump, in his first remarks as the 47th president, said he wants to send American astronauts to Mars.
Trump promised he “will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars” and “plant the stars and stripes on the planet Mars.”
Billionaire Elon Musk of SpaceX threw his hands up in the air as Trump announced the U.S. would plant its flag on Mars.
Trump’s enthusiasm for sending astronauts to Mars was shared by some – but not all – Americans in a 2019 AP-NORC poll.
About 3 in 10 US adults said that sending astronauts to Mars was “very” or “extremely” important, about one-third said it was “moderately” important, and about 4 in 10 said it was “not too” or “not at all” important.
Trump also added that his political comeback is historic.
“Many people thought it was impossible for me to stage such a historic political comeback, but as you see here today, here I am,” he said.
“I stand before you now as proof that you should never believe that something is impossible to do in America,” he went on, adding: “In America, the impossible is what we do best.”
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