She has the freshness, innocence and enthusiasm of a 17 year old girl. For several weeks, Kai Trump has been delighting Internet users by sharing selected moments from his extraordinary life on his YouTube channel. On Tuesday, Donald Trump’s granddaughter released a behind-the-scenes video of the launch of SpaceX’s Starship rocket, which took place on November 19 in Texas. In this short film of around ten minutes, the 17-year-old teenager chose to feature a conversation between her grandfather and Elon Musk.
As a reminder, that day, SpaceX had to give up trying to catch the first stage of Starship with mechanical arms. A complex maneuver that she had nevertheless succeeded in October. This time, Elon Musk’s company announced shortly after takeoff that the criteria were not met to attempt this operation, and Super Heavy landed in the Gulf of Mexico where it disintegrated. The rocket must ultimately be fully reusable, which is why SpaceX is looking to catch up on its first stage.
Kai Trump revealed the moments following this failure, when Donald Trump is joined by Elon Musk (editor’s note, from 7:10 in the video). “We had some concerns about the tower, so we ditched it,” says the richest man of all time. The president-elect seems not to fully understand what his interlocutor has just said: “Fantastic,” he marvels. He then asks, “Can they reuse it? Can they get it out of the sea?
Elon Musk then seems to try to respond politely: “Um… it’s going to be… It’s probably going to explode. That’s my opinion.” As Kai Trump’s vlog shows, his grandfather was not very chatty during this launch. Last week, a body language specialist explained to the “Telegraph” that Donald Trump had appeared “very uncomfortable” that day. “Usually he plays the alpha male, the most powerful person in the room,” he explained, adding that the Republican seemed “overwhelmed,” “anxious,” and that he didn’t “know what do with your hands.
