As he plotted to make more cuts to NASA, especially to its Earth science budget and its educational programme, US President Donald Trump made a surprising admission in a recent telephone call between the White House Oval Office and astronauts on the International Space Station. President Trump expressed a wish to make a call to US astronauts walking on Mars before the end of his second term in January 2025. However, he may not be in power by then. In fact, there is now a serious chance that Trump will be removed from office before the end of his first term via an impeachment process by the US Congress. This may be pursued because of his alleged interference in an FBI investigation into his staff’s links to the Russian government.
Allegedly, he asked the FBI’s then Director James Comey, since fired by Trump to public disquiet, to stop the investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. An internal FBI memo from Comey to his senior FBI staff detailing the request by Trump has been released to the media. This leak is thought to have been by the FBI itself, which is still reportedly smarting over the “termination” of the popular Comey. Comey is expected to testify before a Senate committee on recent events.
U.S.President Donald Trump. Courtesy: Wikipedia
Update on 18 May 2017: The former Director of the FBI, Robert Mueller, has been appointed as a special investigator by the Attorney General’s office to look into allegations of possible Russian collusion with the Trump campaign.
Post Script: As a hint on the chance of impeachment, the bookmaker Paddy Power rates the chance as odds of 2-1 (a 33% chance).
