Here's a related prior discussion of proposed cuts at NASA:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43653605

The proposed cuts, if enacted, will devestate scientific research at NASA (50% cut to science programs).

Ahead of schedule, under budget, ready to launch early next year - kill it. That describes the Trump administration in a nutshell: completely inept.

> The agency received the draft on April 10, one day after Jared Isaacman, President Donald Trump’s nominee for NASA administrator, insisted in his nomination hearing that the U.S. could send humans to the moon and Mars and “do all the other things” with NASA’s current budget. “I do believe the president is looking to usher in the golden age of science and discovery,” Isaacman said.

There's something very... North Korea about the whole Trump thing; this bizarrely effusive praise of Dear Leader, spouting obviously delusional rubbish that everyone knows is delusional (no, NASA is not sending people to Mars on its current budget, don't be silly).

To be fair the whole Pledge of Allegiance thing in schools is already borderline authoritarian

What I'm talking about isn't just the authoritarian flavour, though, it's the complete rejection of reality. China's authoritarian, say; so is Singapore, but they don't do the "Dear Leader is literally magical" thing that North Korea and, now, increasingly, the Trumpists do (though China used to with Mao to some extent).