NASA's Isaacman latest to endorse Trump reclassifying Pluto as a planet

Eric Lagatta, USA TODAYTue, March 17, 2026 at 12:35 PM UTC

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NASA's Isaacman latest to endorse Trump reclassifying Pluto as a planet

President Donald Trump campaigned on "America first," but some of his supporters and appointees apparently want Pluto to once again be ... ninth.

The ninth planet in our solar system, that is.

Ever since Pluto was infamously stripped of its planetary status two decades ago, debate has raged for years over the distant icy world – half the size of the United States – and just what sort of cosmic body it should be classified as.

Now, Jared Isaacman, NASA's new chief, has appeared to signal his support for Trump to designate Pluto as a planet once again through executive order.

1 / 02025 was a year of cosmic discoveries. Here's a look back at 6NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope last observed come 3I/ATLAS on Nov. 30, about four months after Hubble's first look at the interstellar comet. 3I/ATLAS became one of the biggest cosmic stories of the year when astronomers deemed it to be the third-ever discovered interstellar object in our solar system originating from an entirely different part of the galaxy.

Here's everything to know about Pluto and the ongoing campaign to make it a planet again.

Why is Pluto not a planet anymore?

Discovered in 1930, Pluto was long considered the ninth and furthest planet in our solar system from the sun until it was controversially downgraded in 2006 in a vote by members of the International Astronomical Union.

Because Pluto – only about 1,400 miles wide – lacks the gravitational forces necessary to "clear its orbit of debris," the celestial body is now classified as a smaller dwarf planet, the IAU stated in its resolution, according to NASA.

Pluto, a frigid mountainous world with craters and glaciers, is located beyond the Kuiper Belt, a doughnut-shaped region of icy bodies. The Kuiper Belt is located at the outskirts of our solar system, extending far beyond the orbit of Neptune – now the farthest planet from the sun – where other objects might cross Pluto's orbital path.

The only spacecraft to explore Pluto up close was NASA's New Horizons, which in 2015 flew by the world and its five known moons.

NASA chief tells Daily Mail, make 'Pluto great again'

Pluto's demotion has not been without controversy. Even two decades later, its non-planetary status continues to spark opposition, even among the highest ranking NASA officials.

In an interview with the Daily Mail, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said he endorses the idea of President Donald Trump taking action to reclassify Pluto as a planet.

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"I 100% support President Trump making Pluto great again," Isaacman told the outlet in an interview published in March.

Isaacman is not the first NASA chief to publicly support restoring Pluto as a planet. Jim Bridenstine, NASA's administrator during Trump's first term, weighed in on the topic in 2019, saying at a press event: "Pluto is a planet, and you can write that the NASA administrator declared Pluto a planet once again."

A spokeswoman for NASA acknowledged a message from the USA TODAY Network left Tuesday, March 17, seeking more information and indicated a response was forthcoming.

Who else supports classifying Pluto as a planet?

Of course, it takes more than one person's declaration to reclassify Pluto as a planet – even if he is the leader of the world's largest space agency.

Fortunately for Pluto, the world has had plenty of big names in its corner over the years. That includes Alan Stern, the principal investigator of the New Horizons mission, who has long used a different definition of planethood focused on factors including its geology and atmosphere that doesn't exclude Pluto, Space.com has reported.

"Star Trek" actor William Shatner also recently spoke out, decrying IAU's members as "just a bunch of corrupt nerds on a power trip" and calling for "an end to the union’s tyranny of the cosmos." Shatner then turned to none other than billionaire Elon Musk for help.

"We should ask Elon to get the President to sign one of those Executive thingies to make Pluto a planet again," Shatner posted in May 2025 on social media site X.

Musk, the world's richest man, who at the time had the ear of Trump as one of the president's closest advisers, responded: "I'd support that."

Has President Trump weighed in?

Though Trump has shown he is not opposed to renaming things via executive order, the president has so far not weighed in on what he thinks of the debate over Pluto. It's also unclear just what sort of authority Trump would have over the cosmos, as any decision he renders would not be binding to the IAU.

That hasn't stopped some politicians, though, from advocating for Trump to step in, including Sen. Mike Lee, a Republican from Utah, who in February asked the president to "make Pluto planetary again."

Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@usatodayco.com

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Could Trump make Pluto a planet again? NASA chief signals support

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