Shane Kimbrough, the sole American astronaut currently living aboard the ISS, cast the 2016 presidential election’s lone vote from space, providing either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton with a sweeping space mandate. Kimbrough was, however, reticent to name the person he wanted at the top of his chain of command (the NASA Administrator reports directly to the White House). So it falls to the commentariat to make complete irresponsible inferences about his political sympathies (Sorry Shane!).
Here are the six reasons to suspect Kimbrough voted Trump:
He’s Military
According to a recent Military.com poll, troops were leaning Trump 3-to-1. Not only is Kimbrough military himself — he went to West Point and the U.S. Army Aviation School — his father was a Lieutenant Colonel.
He’s a White Guy
The majority of Caucasian, male voters will cast their ballots for Donald Trump.
He Likes White Guy Sports
According to several Major League Baseball beat reporters, the league’s wealthy Caucasian stars — predominantly from rural areas — are pro-Trump. Kimbrough was the captain of the baseball team at West Point, where he was a First Team All-Conference Pitcher. Now that he’s a bit older, Kimbrough has refocussed his athletic passion on golf. Before he launched to the International Space Station this fall, Kimbrough told Space.com he planned to take pictures of golf greens all over the world. Some golf greens are on Trump courses.
He Hangs Out With Russians
Kimbrough launched to the ISS in a Soyuz spacecraft from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with his current roommates, cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko. He has never gone on the record condemning Vladimir Putin (though no one has ever asked).
He Votes in Houston
Though Texas isn’t the overwhelmingly red state it once was, Houston is a very conservative town. Kimbrough, like many astronauts, lives there when he’s Earthbound. In fact, Kimbrough can vote because the Texas legislature, looking out for local astronauts, put a technical procedure in place in 1997.
He’s Not Afraid a Robot Will Take His Job
Kimbrough posted some casual snaps to Twitter hanging out with Robonaut, the humanoid NASA prototype being built to work alongside humans in space and on Mars. Lack of concern about automation seems to be a them among Trump supporters.
What does this staggering pile of circumstantial evidence amount to? Far from definitive proof that the entire American space vote went to Donald Trump, who has given no public indication of what his agenda for NASA might be.
