The Moon gift has been removed from Trump's office in the White House: has Musk and Mars truly triumphed? (photo)

It remains unclear whether U.S. President Donald Trump still supports NASA's plan to land astronauts on the Moon in the near future, but it can be definitively stated that there is no longer a place for the Moon in the Oval Office, writes Space.

For the past four years, a moon rock brought back by astronauts from the Apollo 17 mission has been displayed in the U.S. President's office, but now, as part of the Oval Office's redesign, the Trump administration has removed it. NASA representatives have indicated that the lunar rock will now return to the U.S. space agency.

This moon rock, which was brought to Earth by astronauts who last visited the Moon's surface in 1972, symbolized NASA's ongoing preparations for future exploration of Earth's satellite and a new astronaut landing on its surface. During President Joe Biden's four years in office, the moon rock remained in the Oval Office.

During his inaugural address, Trump stated that NASA astronauts should plant the U.S. flag on Mars, but he did not mention a new human landing on the Moon. However, during his first presidential term in 2017, Trump tasked NASA with focusing all efforts on achieving this mission.

At the same time, Trump's advisor, SpaceX owner Elon Musk, is more supportive of manned flights to Mars. Billionaire Jared Isaacman, whom Trump proposed for the NASA administrator position, previously stated that Americans "will walk on the Moon and Mars."

It is unknown whether the removal of the moon rock from the Oval Office is related to any upcoming changes in the future manned space flights of the U.S.

Perhaps the moon rock was removed because it is associated with the former U.S. president, but the Trump administration left a portrait of Benjamin Franklin in the Oval Office, which Biden wished to add to the decor.

Biden was the second U.S. president to display the moon rock in the Oval Office. The first was Bill Clinton, who requested that the moon rock brought back by Apollo 11 astronauts remain in the White House after it was brought there in 1999 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the first human landing on the Moon. The lunar rock was in the Oval Office until January 2001, when Clinton left the presidency.

Interestingly, during Trump's first term in 2017, another moon rock from the Apollo 17 mission was temporarily brought to the Oval Office. This was related to Trump's directive for NASA to send astronauts to the Moon and Mars.