Trump Crumbles After Call to Artemis II Astronauts Hits Awkward Silence

President Donald Trump blamed the delay for a minute of awkward silence during a phone call with astronauts aboard the Artemis II ship Monday night. The president spoke for just over 12 minutes with four astronauts — Americans Christina Koch, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen — after 10:30 p.m. ET, touting their accomplishments after traveling farther than anyone in history earlier in the day. “You made history today and made all of America truly proud,” Trump told the crew, who were about 250,000 miles from Earth at the time. “People have never seen anything like what you do on a manned spacecraft. It’s really special.”