Trump stated that Biden had no intention of rescuing the astronauts "stranded" on the ISS.

In a joint interview with Trump and Musk, conducted by Fox News host Sean Hannity and aired on February 18, the President and the head of SpaceX confirmed plans to return two American astronauts, Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams, to Earth. They have been aboard the International Space Station since June 2024 due to issues with Boeing's Starliner spacecraft.

“At the request or direction of the President, we will expedite the process of bringing the astronauts back. They were left there for political reasons, which is not good,” Musk stated.

“Biden intended to leave them in space. <…> He didn’t want any publicity,” Trump added.

However, in reality, Wilmore and Williams can return home at any time at NASA's discretion. Seats have already been reserved for them on SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft (Crew-9 mission), which successfully transported Russian astronaut Alexander Gorbunov and American astronaut Nick Haig into orbit last September.