MANCHESTER, N.H. — One of the last questions Donald Trump took during a "Politics and Eggs" event here early Wednesday morning came from a 10-year-old boy who recently won a spelling bee.
The local boy laughed, told the presidential candidate "yeah," and said: "I want to know your opinions on NASA."
Trump wanted to make sure he correctly heard the question, turning to those around him to clarify if the boy was asking about the national space program or the North American Free Trade Agreement. A woman near the boy shouted: "Space!"
"You know, in the old days, it was great," Trump told the boy, along with an audience of more than 600. "Right now, we have bigger problems — you understand that? We've got to fix our potholes. You know, we don't exactly have a lot of money."
But it's not that Trump doesn't love space. After all, he once tweeted in August 2012: "It is very sad to see what @BarackObama has done with NASA. He has gutted the program and made us dependent on the Russians."
"I love NASA," Trump said Wednesday morning. "I love what it represents, I love what it stands for, and I hope that someday in the not-too-distant future, we can get that going. Space is terrific. Space is terrific."
Trump added that a lot of private companies have started to explore space, which he deemed "great" and "maybe even better" than the government leading such exploration.
"You love it, I can see, right? You love it?" Trump asked the boy, who eagerly responded yes. "Whatever it is you love, you do. Okay, one more question!"