Martina Navratilova accuses Donald Trump & Elon Musk of 'grift' as President-elect nominates tech tycoon's billionaire friend to lead NASA

Martina Navratilova has accused Donald Trump and Elon Musk of dishonesty after the President-elect nominated the world's richest man's friend to lead NASA. The friend in question is Jared Isaacman, who himself is a billionaire and owns a prominent online payment company.

On Sunday (Dec. 22), Navratilova took notice of a post on X shared by 'Citizens for Ethics', which was captioned:

"Trump's pick to lead NASA is Jared Isaacman, friend of Elon Musk, whose online payment company has extensive financial ties to SpaceX. If confirmed, Isaacman would oversee billions of dollars in government contracts awarded to SpaceX."

The post also contained a link to an NPR article titled, 'Trump chooses billionaire astronaut Jared Isaacman to run NASA'. Former World No. 1 and 18-time singles Major champion Martina Navratilova reacted to the post with the word 'grift', which refers to ways of getting money in a dishonest manner, typically by tricking someone.

"And the grift is getting bigger by the day," Navratilova wrote.

An X user later countered Navratilova, writing:

"I think it's great. Pick people who have an appetite for building things, not more glorified beancounters"

To this, the Czech-American tennis legend expressed astonishment and opined that this move is all about Trump, Musk and Isaacman making more money without a thought for the people.

"Wow. Don’t you see how all they care about is enriching themselves? They won’t build crap for the people…," Navratilova replied.

Navratilova has been fiercely critical of Elon Musk in recent months, especially after the billionaire's pivotal role in facilitating Donald Trump's return to presidency. Recently, the former World No. 1 took a swipe at a US Representative for hyping up Musk.

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"Load of crap" - Martina Navratilova condemns US Representative's stance on Elon Musk

Martina Navratilova (Source: Getty)

US Representative Tony Gonzales featured as a guest on a recent episode of CBS' Face the Nation. During his appearance on the show, Gonzales lauded Elon Musk and went as far as to liken the billionaire to a "prime minister".

"It feels like Elon Musk is our Prime Minister ... a large part of that voice is a reflection of the voice of the people," Gonzales said.

Appalled by Gonzales' take, Martina Navratilova shared her reaction to it on X, writing:

"What a load of crap- Musk is the voice of the people????"

Navratilova had previously accused Musk of rigging the system with his 2022 takeover of Twitter, which the billionaire later rebranded as X.