Neil deGrasse Tyson Went Viral After Posing on X With a MAGA Hat

Although he has been one of the world's most famous scientists for decades, Neil deGrasse Tyson has tended to be relatively quiet about politics. That has changed recently, especially in light of the second Trump administration. Following a recent X (formerly Twitter) post which featured him holding a MAGA hat among a broader selection of hats, many wanted to know more about his political beliefs.

Neil has generally been believed to be more left-leaning than right-leaning, but some are worried that his beliefs might be changing. Here's what we know.

Neil sparked some concern after posting a picture of himself holding four red hats with different slogans, and asking his followers which one he should wear. The hats said "make America great again," "make America smart again," "make lying wrong again," and "relax it's just a red hat." He then put up a 48-hour poll in which he asked his followers which hat he should wear.

"I am actually surprised he has those. I thought he was on the left of things," one person wrote in response to the post.

"Wait, you are a red hat?" another person asked.

The confusion around the post is understandable. Although Neil has not always been that outspoken about politics, his views have tended to align far more regularly with the Democratic Party than with the Republican Party, and that's true even of his most recent posts.

The post is undoubtedly confusing, but it seems unlikely that Neil has gone full MAGA. Even his most recent posts on X suggest that he has at least a soft opposition to many of the Trump administration's policies.

"Just as the intensity of weather events is increasing, seems like the wrong time to cut funding to NOAA, organized 55 years ago by a Republican President," he wrote in April of Trump's decision to cut funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Neil has also discussed the administration's deportation policies.

"Been thinking a lot lately about the morals of Jesus of Nazareth," he wrote around Easter. "As a tan man from the Middle East, if Jesus were an undocumented American immigrant, I wonder if angry mobs would get ICE to deport him — especially for speaking out against greed and advocating for the poor."

Although Neil does not speak often about race, he has previously discussed his belief that women and people of color should be given the same opportunities as white Americans.

"My life experience tells me, when you don't find Blacks in the sciences, when you don't find women in the sciences, I know these forces are real and I had to survive them in order to get where I am today," he said at the 2005 National Academy of Sciences conference.

It seems unlikely, then, that Trump agrees with the administration now. As for why he's posting about wearing a red hat, that's a mystery that doesn't yet have a clear, scientific explanation.