During a brief, unofficial Reddit AMA one week ago, the Republican nominee for president of the United States, Donald Trump, had kind words for NASA and US space policy. “Honestly I think NASA is wonderful! America has always led the world in space exploration,” Trump responded to a question on NASA's role in his administration.

Evidently Trump no longer feels that way. During a "town hall" Wednesday in Daytona Beach, Florida, about 75 miles up the coast from Kennedy Space Center, the presidential candidate offered some extemporaneous remarks (see video) about America's progress in space. "By the way, look at your space program, look at what's going on there," he said. "Somebody just asked me backstage, 'Mr. Trump, will you get involved in the space program?' Look what's happened with your employment. Look what's happened with our whole history of space and leadership. Look what's going on folks. We're like a third world nation."

Somehow during the last week, when NASA demonstrated progress with its SLS rocket, a US company received a license to make the first-ever private launch to the Moon, SpaceX successfully tested a rocket that landed on a boat, and NASA's Juno spacecraft reached the halfway point of its first orbit around Jupiter, America's space enterprise has gone from always leading the world to being worthy of a developing country.

During the last six months or so, Ars has endeavored to determine what kind of space policy a Trump administration might have. He seems to believe that the United States needs to fix its economy before investing in Mars. But he also invited former astronaut Eileen Collins to speak at his convention, and Collins supports a big government space exploration plan. Unfortunately, as one Republican space official recently bemoaned to Ars, perhaps the most simple explanation might be that Trump has little to no space policy at all.