Honestly this is not surprising, and as much as politics suck, the rocket equation sucks harder

Mars has a little bit less gravity than Earth

How big would a rocket need to be even to send a small payload (let's think 20kg/45lb) even suborbitally so that it can be caught by another spaceship

Now check how big a rocket has to be to send all of that from Earth

You'd probably have to send this on Starship. And refuel it while on orbit