Watch | Trump calls Sunita Williams ‘woman with wild hair’ as he vows to bring stranded astronauts back

US President Donald Trump has called Sunita Williams, the US astronaut of Indian origin, a “woman with wild hair” in his latest remarks

In his latest salvo at his predecessor Joe Biden, Trump said that the previous administration left Williams and fellow astronaut Butch Wilmore in space and he has been in talks with his ally Elon Musk, who runs space company SpaceX, to bring those astronauts back.

On June 5, 2024, Williams and Wilmore left for the International Space Station (ISS) for an eight-day mission, but a fault in their spacecraft, Boeing Starliner, meant that the craft was deemed too risky to carry humans. This meant the craft returned to Earth empty and Williams and Wilmore have since been at the ISS — their eight-day mission turning into a nine-month stay in space.

In remarks at the White House, Trump on Thursday said, “I see the woman with the wild hair, good, solid head of hair she’s got. There’s no kidding, there’s no games with her hair…We love you and we’re coming up to get you. And you shouldn’t have been up there so long.”

Trump on two astronauts stuck in space: "Maybe they'll love each other, I don't know. But they've been left up there. Think of it. And I see the woman with the wild hair. Good solid head of hair she's got. There's no kidding. There's no games with her hair." pic.twitter.com/6a2JHVXFNO

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 6, 2025

Referring to their stay in space, Trump said that Biden “allowed that to happen to you, but this president won’t let it happen”.

Trump said that he has asked Musk to get those astronauts back.

“Biden left them up there. We have two astronauts that are stuck in space. I have asked Elon (Musk), I said, Do me a favour. Can you get them out?’ He said, Yes.’ He is preparing to go up, I think in two weeks,” said Trump.

Even though Trump has claimed that Musk is bringing Williams and Wilmore back to Earth within weeks at his request, that’s not the case. Under the Biden administration, Nasa entered into an arrangement with SpaceX to bring Williams and Wilmore back to Earth via Crew 9 flight launched in September 2024. The flight was initially scheduled to bring the two back in February but the two are now scheduled to return later this month.

On the same issue, Musk and astronaut Andreas Mogensen had got into an argument on X in which Musk had got abusive.

Responding to Musk’s joint interview with Trump with Fox News in which he claimed that Williams and Wilmore were left in space “for political reasons”, Mogensen said that Musk was lying. When Musk abused him, Mogensen replied that Musk was lying as the SpaceX flight to bring back the two astronauts was launched under the previous administration in September.

“Elon, I have long admired you and what you have accomplished, especially at SpaceX and Tesla. You know as well as I do, that Butch and Suni are returning with Crew-9, as has been the plan since last September. Even now, you are not sending up a rescue ship to bring them home. They are returning on the Dragon capsule that has been on ISS since last September,” said Mogensen on X.