Meet Jared Isaacman, the billionaire CEO and SpaceX astronaut whose title has come up within the Musk-Trump feud | Invesloan.com

At the age of 15, Isaacman decided to drop out of high school and take the GED, according to the Netflix docuseries "Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space."

"I was a horrible student," Isaacman said in the series. "And I wasn't, like, happy in school, either."

He described his younger self as independent and said he didn't understand things like raising your hand to go to the bathroom.

Isaacman founded United Bank Card in 1999.

The company, now called Shift4, offers mobile-payment software, point-of-sale solutions, and online payments for various businesses.

Isaacman said in the Netflix docuseries that when he started the company, he would wake up every day at 7:30 a.m. and fall asleep on the keyboard at 2 or 3 in the morning.

By 2020, he took the company public. Today, Shift4 processes over $260 billion annually and serves over 200,000 customers, according to its website.

Isaacman has known his wife, Monica Isaacman, for most of his life. The two come from the same town and got married in 2012. They now live in New Jersey with their two daughters.

"I want my kids to see humans walking on the moon and Mars," Isaacman told BI.

His wife said in the docuseries that she had good and bad dreams leading up to his first SpaceX mission, Inspiration4, which launched in 2021.

She said while she wouldn't want him to compromise on his dreams of going to space, she worried about what could happen if something went wrong.

Isaacman told BI in the interview that his family and wife were much more enthusiastic about the Polaris Dawn mission this time around, thanks to a successful first mission.

While there are still risks, he told BI his family is aware and accepts them.

Isaacman founded Draken International in 2012. The company is a private aircraft provider that also trains pilots for the US military, the UK, and NATO countries.

In 2019, Isaacman sold the company to Blackstone.

Isaacman hit billionaire status in 2020 after selling Draken International and taking Shift4 public. His net worth is estimated at $1.7 billion, according to Forbes.

Isaacman said in the Netflix docuseries that he took an early interest in flying and went to flight school at a local airport in 2004.

At the time, he was feeling burned out from starting his company and described flying as "therapeutic." Isaacman also set a world speed record for flying around the globe in 2009.

"I do believe you only get one crack at life," Isaacman said in the docuseries. "To the extent you have the means to do so, you have this obligation to live life to the fullest. You never know when it's going to be your last day."

He added in the docuseries that this philosophy had taken him to fly in air shows as part of a seven-ship formation aerobatic team and on mountain-climbing expeditions in Antarctica.

Isaacman has been involved in several charitable causes and organizations, including the Make-A-Wish Foundation and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

His first SpaceX mission raised over $240 million for St. Jude and was named Inspiration4 to inspire support and raise awareness for the research hospital.

Isaacman and his wife have also committed to The Giving Pledge, a charitable campaign founded by Bill Gates, Melinda French Gates, and Warren Buffett in 2010.

The Giving Pledge serves as a commitment from wealthy people to donate the majority of their wealth to philanthropy.

In 2021, Isaacman funded and led the first civilian mission to space, called Inspiration4. The mission was carried out by SpaceX 's Dragon capsule.

Isaacman previously told Business Insider that the prep for the mission was extensive and involved a lot of studying and physical tests.

"The academics were pretty intense," Isaacman said, adding that there were thousands of pages across a hundred manuals to learn about SpaceX's Falcon and Dragon aircraft.

It also involved crew members drawing blood from each other and learning how to take skin samples to prepare for increased radiation levels on the trip.

On September 10, Isaacman and three other crew members successfully took off on their way into orbit for the first-ever privately funded spacewalk.

The spacewalk featured SpaceX's new EVA suits.

Polaris Dawn lifted off from Launch Complex-39A at NASA's KSC, which also saw the launches of other historic missions, such as the Apollo 11 moon landing. Dragon and the Polaris Dawn crew safely arrived back on the coast of Florida on September 15.

In an X post on December 4, Isaacman called the nomination "the honor of a lifetime" and suggested that human space exploration would be a top priority.

Space-industry experts told BI that Isaacman was not a traditional pick for NASA Administrator, but his background in commercial spaceflight would benefit the agency.

"They need someone who is not afraid to try something new if the old ways aren't working," George Nield, a former head of the FAA's office of commercial space transportation, previously told BI.

Michelle Hanlon, executive director of the Center for Air and Space Law at the University of Mississippi School of Law, called Isaacman "an inspired pick," in part due to his "stellar" managerial skills.

"He has shown a real commitment to increasing access to space, and I think he is going to be a great person to promote space to the general public," she said.

Trump said he was dropping Isaacman's nomination on May 31 in a post on Truth Social, after a "thorough review of prior associations." He also said that he would soon announce a new, "mission aligned" nominee.

Isaacman had donated to Democratic candidates throughout his career up until the 2024 election, according to OpenSecrets.

Isaacman responded to the withdrawal on X by saying he was "incredibly grateful" to the president, the Senate, and anyone who supported him throughout the nomination.

"The past six months have been enlightening and, honestly, a bit thrilling. I have gained a much deeper appreciation for the complexities of government and the weight our political leaders carry," Isaacman wrote in a post.

In an episode of the "All-In Podcast" released last month, Isaacman said that his Democratic donations were always public and he doesn't think it was the reason his nomination was withdrawn.

"I don't think that the timing was much of a coincidence that, you know, there was other changes going on the same day," Isaacman said, adding that there was "more than one departure that was covered on that day."

Isaacman said that he thinks there were "axes to grind" and he was a "good visible target." He said he doesn't "fault the president at all" and fully supports him.

Musk had ended his time at the White House leading DOGE just days before the decision to withdraw Isaacman's nomination. Musk came swiftly came to Isaacman's defense following the withdrawal and wrote in a post and said on X that it was "rare to find someone so competent and good-hearted."

Days later, Musk ramped up his criticism for Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill," which escalated into the two exchanging insults on social media. Musk accused the president of being involved in the Epstein files and Trump threatened to eliminate government contracts with Musk's companies.

While the dust appeared to momentarily settle between Musk and Trump after their public dust-up, the feud started back up again when Musk renewed his criticism on Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill," which was just signed into law on Friday.

As tensions escalate between the two, Isaacman has again come up.

In a post about the end of EV mandates in Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill," Trump shed some more light on the decision that went into withdrawing Isaacman's nomination.

"Elon asked that one of his close friends run NASA and, while I thought his friend was very good, I was surprised to learn that he was a blue blooded Democrat, who had never contributed to a Republican before," Trump said on Truth Social.

Isaacman had previously said in the "All-In Podcast" in June that he's always been "somewhat of a moderate" and leaned right.

Trump added that he thought it was "inappropriate" that a close friend of Musk would run NASA when it's such a big part of Musk's corporate life.

This story was originally published on September 11, 2024, and most recently updated on July 7, 2025.