BREAKING: Trump to compensate returned astronauts out of his ‘own pocket’ for overtime pay if necessary

Fox News' Peter Doocy said that the astronauts "didn't get any overtime pay for all that extra time. They got $5 a day per diem for 286 days, that is $1,430 in extra pay. Is there anything the administration can do to make them whole?"

"Well, nobody's ever mentioned this to me. If I have to I'll pay that of my own pocket. Ok? I'll get it for them. I like that."

The president continued as reporters tried to interject and ask other questions, and said, "Is that all? That's not a lot for what they had to go through," Trump added. He then wanted to thank Elon Musk for his efforts in saving the astronauts. "And I want to thank Elon Musk, by the way, because think of we don't have him. You know, there's only so long, even though they're in the capsule up there. The body starts to deteriorate after nine or 10 months and gets really bad after 14 [or] 15, months, with the bones and the blood and all the things that you've been reporting on very well. And if we don't have Elon, they could be up there a long time."

NASA astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Suni Williams returned to the surface of the earth after getting stuck at the International Space Station (ISS) for around nine months. Their visit to the ISS was supposed to last for about eight days, but soon turned out to be more than eight months after there were problems with the Boeing Starliner capsule which prevented them from returning.

The White House has said that there was a delay in getting the astronauts home after that “because of the Biden administration's lack of urgency.” Karoline Leavitt told reporters earlier this week, "Joe Biden's lack of courage to act boldly and decisively was a big reason why Butch and Suni did not make it back until yesterday. But President Trump doesn't waste time."

Musk has also said that the rescue of the astronauts was delayed because of “political reasons” when he tried to work with the Biden administration.