Robert Bigelow
Robert Bigelow, one of Donald Trump’s biggest backers, is a real estate and aerospace billionaire who owns Budget Suites of America and founded the now-defunct Bigelow Aerospace. Bigelow has spent millions funding UFO and alien pseudoscience, touting having “probably spent more as an individual than anybody else in the United States has ever spent” on the issue. He declared he is “absolutely convinced” aliens exist and UFOs have visited Earth.
In January 2024, Bigelow covered $1 million of Trump’s legal fees and committed an additional $20 million to the Make America Great Again Inc Super PAC; he has given over $9 million as of May 2024. Bigelow alleges he was drawn in by Trump’s criminal charges, calling the proceedings a “disgrace” and sending the convicted felon $5 million after Trump was found guilty of falsifying business documents to influence the 2016 election by a New York jury.
Bigelow initially supported Ron DeSantis’ primary campaign, dishing out $20 million to a pro-DeSantis super PAC in the process, but Trump, in need of cash, spent months aggressively courting him. Trump invited Bigelow to donor meetings, to ride in his motorcade, and shouted his name out during a rally, until he ultimately secured a financial pledge from the hotel magnate. On why he was now coming around to support Trump, Bigelow purported, “I was just sympathetic. They didn’t solicit anything from me.”
In 1998, he founded the now-defunct Bigelow Aerospace, which attempted to develop commercial space habitats. Bigelow was involved in a privatization effort of low Earth orbit during the Trump administration, stating it was a tremendous business opportunity for “the little guys.” As Bigelow said: “this is a completely new era. The circumstances have been changed, because NASA is cash-poor… Not only does it make sense, but it’s an absolute necessity.” He has also proposed that NASA receive “an annual budget equal to at least one percent of total yearly federal spending.”Bigelow, who does not have formal science or engineering training, declared in a 2017 interview with 60 Minutes, “NASA and government still have a role because it is still in a sort of embryonic stage. And there will come a time when it’s not necessary at all. And the commercial world will absolutely be the leader for everything in space.”
In 2021, Bigelow and his company brought a lawsuit against NASA for more than $1 million for alleged unpaid work, but the case was dismissed in 2022 because the district court where the suit was filed did not have jurisdiction over the matter. NASA was reportedly withholding payment from Bigelow’s company until receiving the further testing data NASA requested, but Bigelow persisted that this data, along with “a time consuming and expensive technical coordination meeting at NASA headquarters” was “not required by the Contract.”