The tragedy comes less than a month after the start of his presidency and just days after the Senate confirmed Pete Hegseth as the Secretary of Defense. The Federal Aviation Administration is, at the moment, leaderless.

Michael Whitaker assumed the post in 2023 and announced his intention to resign back in December following Trump’s victory. Whitaker was a vocal critic of SpaceX and had chastised Elon Musk’s space program for skirting safety regulations. The only way to bring them to heel, he said, was to levy massive fines. Musk told him to resign from the FAA in a post on X. Whitaker did just that, leaving his post on January 20.