President Donald Trump holds up a figurine handed to him by former Apollo 17 astronaut Jack Schmitt, right, after signing a policy directive to send American astronauts back to the moon, and eventually Mars, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Monday, Dec. 11, 2017, in Washington. Evan Vucci/AP Photo
President Donald Trump sparked a Twitter uproar on Friday with a confusingly-phrased tweet that initially gave the impression he believed the moon was part of Mars.
NASA officials have said bolstering their presence on the moon will be an essential step towards conducting further research on Mars.
Trump’s tweet on NASA came shortly after a segment on . Business in which NASA’s chief financial officer Jeff DeWitt discussed NASA’s initiatives on the moon and their planned moon expedition in 2024 with host Neil Cavuto.
While Trump was most likely tweeting in response to the . segment, the clumsy phrasing of his tweet still prompted copious jokes and memes from the Twitterverse.
“Mars is part of the moon sounds like collusion to me,” tweeted former Obama White House photographer Pete Souza in response to Trump’s tweet.
