Former White House aide: Trump offered NASA unlimited funding to go to Mars

“Is there any way we could do it by the end of my first term?” Trump reportedly asked Robert Lightfoot Jr., then the acting NASA administrator for NASA's plans for Mars, who explained to the president that NASA planned to try a manned spaceflight by the 2030s and that there were logistical challenges of doing so before then.

Trump then offered Lightfoot "all the money you could ever need," according to New York Magazine's reporting on Sims's book.

“But what if I gave you all the money you could ever need to do it?” Trump asked. “What if we sent NASA’s budget through the roof, but focused entirely on that instead of whatever else you’re doing now. Could it work then?”

Lightfoot reportedly responded to the president by telling him he didn't think that was possible. That left Trump "visibly disappointed," wrote Sims, a former White House communications staffer.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/426506-former-white-house-aide-trump-offered-nasa-unlimited-funding-to-go-to