FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump looks on as he meets South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 21, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

Transportation secretary and acting NASA administrator Sean Duffy is on thin ice with Trump and the White House after reigniting a feud with on-again, off-again Trump confidant Elon Musk, according to NOTUS.

According to the report, Duffy is desperate to hang onto his NASA role, folding it into the Department of Transportation, but Musk ally Jared Isaacman, whose initial nomination to head the space agency was withdrawn, has returned to seek the position.

Following Isaacman's initial nomination to lead NASA by Trump in December 2024, Trump withdrew the nomination in May 2025 over concerns about Isaacman's past political donations to Democrats.

As Isaacman has been said to be making "inroads" with Trump and others in his administration, Duffy was "beginning to feel the pressure that his plan to fold NASA under his purview as secretary of transportation was slipping," according to NOTUS sources.

Those sources also said Duffy appears to be putting his own interests ahead of the administration’s, and in doing so, "rubbed people the wrong way."

“There are people in the White House who believe Duffy has made unnecessary chaos rather than just accept that his time is in the sunset,” one administration official told NOTUS.

Duffy went on a media tour of sorts this week, touting the work NASA was doing and digging at Musk, saying, "SpaceX was behind in getting humans back on the moon, and NASA is 'not going to wait for one company.'"

Musk retaliated on his X app, calling Duffy “Sean Dummy” and saying he is “trying to kill NASA.”

While NASA defended Duffy, insiders at the White House say that fighting with Musk was a step too far.

“Everyone, and I mean everyone in the West Wing, is furious at him,” one source with knowledge of the dynamic told NOTUS.