White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the nomination of billionaire commercial astronaut Jared Isaacman as his next NASA administrator.

White House officials had previously raised concerns about Isaacman’s past donations to Democrats as justification for the president’s personnel move, but various industry insiders and Republican aides say those donations should have come to light earlier in the vetting process, especially after the Washington Examiner reported on them in January.

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Asked to explain Tuesday why the White House had only been made privy to that information last week, as opposed to prior to Isaacman’s announcement in December, Leavitt demurred.

“The president reserves the right to nominate individuals to key administration posts. He also reserves the right to remove those individuals if he chooses, just like he reserves the right to fire anybody in the executive branch that he wants,” she told reporters. “The president wants to ensure that all of his nominees are aligned fully with the America First mission of this administration.”

Multiple sources, both inside government and in the aeronautical industry, tell the Washington Examiner that Trump is zeroing in on retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Steven Kwast to be nominated in Isaacman’s stead.

Kwast, a decorated pilot and former commander of the Air Force’s Education and Training Command in San Antonio, has steadily supported Trump and his push to launch both the Space Force in his first term and the Golden Dome missile defense system, which Trump announced in May.

Kwast has also said that space will emerge as a critical battlefield in future conflicts with China and has raised alarm bells about Beijing’s plans to further develop “global reach” aircraft.

“China’s plans to mature these hypersonic technologies is hardly a surprise. China is far ahead in developing and flying hypersonic weapons,” he co-wrote in a May op-ed published by Newsmax.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, himself a longtime proponent of American space dominance, told the Washington Examiner that he had not spoken to the president about his next choice to lead NASA but gave Kwast a full endorsement to fulfill that role if called upon.

“I have worked for years with Kwast. He was the brilliant head of the Air University. He is probably the most forward looking Air Force General I’ve ever worked with, and he would be an extraordinary leader at NASA,” he said Monday.

INSIDE TRUMP’S DECISION TO YANK NASA NOMINEE AND HIS PLANS FOR A REPLACEMENT

You can watch Leavitt’s briefing in full below.