We are once again in the era of a Donald Trump presidency, which means that things are once again about to get very interesting.
The past few months have seen Trump forge a close friendship with tech billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, with the 53-year-old even earning the role of government efficiency tsar.
We’re still none the wiser on what the Department of Government Efficiency (which of course has the acronym DOGE) will actually do, but Musk’s influence can already be seen as Trump promised to send astronauts to Mars during his inaugural address.
Elon Musk at the inauguration (CHIP SOMODEVILLA/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
“We will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars,” Trump told attendees at the US Capitol.
Before we even begin to speculate over the ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ about sending astronauts to space, let’s first dissect Musk’s reaction to the announcement.
The cameraman did an astounding job of panning over to Musk once Mars was mentioned, given that it’s his lifelong obsession, and managed to catch his very goofy real-time response.
Watch the moment below:
Of course the reaction of a man who (despite being the very famous) still has no idea how to act on camera has garnered plenty of reactions online.
“Elon immediately looking for the memes,” one person responded to the clip, while a second added: “Elon Musk’s reaction when Trump says we will plant an American flag on Mars is pure gold.”
It would appear that Barron Trump doesn’t share Elon’s fascination with Mars (X)
Meanwhile others were quick to point out that while Musk looked excited at the prospect of humans reaching Mars, Trump’s 18-year-old son Barron was much less enthusiastic.
“Barron’s mind is still in the trenches,” one user joked, as a second commented: “Barron tired of hearing about Mars.”
“Barron Trump is not going to Mars, that’s for sure,” a third added.
Although Barron appears to have very little interest in visiting the Red Planet, making it to Mars is somewhat of a lifelong goal for Musk, who once told SXSW crowds in 2013: “I’d like to die on Mars, just not on impact.”
