- Trump says there is great public interest in the issue.
- Trump says he doesn’t know if aliens are real.
- Accuses Obama of publishing classified material related to aliens.
President Donald Trump said Thursday he would order federal agencies to begin releasing government files related to aliens and unidentified flying objects, signaling what he described as strong public interest in the issue.
In a social media post, Trump said he would order Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth and other agencies to release the information, calling the matter “extremely interesting and important.”
Hours earlier, Trump, without providing evidence, accused former President Barack Obama of improperly revealing classified information when publicly discussing aliens, saying Obama “made a big mistake.”
“He got it from classified information… He’s not supposed to be doing that,” Trump told reporters while traveling to Georgia.
During an interview with podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen, published Saturday, Obama was asked if aliens were real.
“They’re real, but I haven’t seen them, and they’re not kept in… Area 51. There are no underground facilities unless there’s this huge conspiracy and they hid it from the president of the United States,” Obama said.
Area 51 is a classified Air Force facility in Nevada that, fringe theorists speculate, contains alien bodies and a crashed spacecraft. CIA files released in 2013 said it was a testing site for top-secret spy planes.
Pentagon investigations
There was no indication in Obama’s comments that the former president had disclosed classified information. Obama’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
“I didn’t see any evidence during my presidency that aliens have made contact with us. Really!” Obama said in an Instagram post on Sunday.
In the post, Obama explained his belief in the existence of extraterrestrials by saying that the statistical probabilities of life beyond Earth were high because the universe is so vast. He added that the chances of extraterrestrial life visiting Earth are low given the distance.
Following his comments about Obama, Trump added that he had seen no evidence that aliens existed, saying, “I don’t know if they’re real or not.”
In recent years, the Pentagon has investigated reports of UFOs, and senior military leaders said in 2022 that they found no evidence to suggest that aliens had visited Earth or crashed here.
A 2024 Pentagon report said that US government investigations since the end of World War II had found no evidence of extraterrestrial technology and that most sightings were misidentified ordinary objects and phenomena.
The National Archives and Records Administration website says it has UFO-related records in numerous collections.
Myths of area 51
For decades, the Pentagon has cataloged reports of what it calls unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAPs.
In a March 2024 report, the Department of Defense stated that it had found no evidence that any of the incidents investigated involved extraterrestrial technology or contact with extraterrestrial life. The report further noted that investigators had uncovered no indication that the unexplained sightings were attributable to foreign adversaries.
Area 51, the secret Cold War-era military installation in the Nevada desert, has long occupied a central place in conspiracy lore. In 2013, the Central Intelligence Agency formally acknowledged the site’s existence, although it dismissed claims involving crashed spacecraft, extraterrestrial beings or simulated lunar landings.
Public curiosity has sometimes taken theatrical form. A few years ago, a loosely organized online campaign called “Storm Area 51” drew dozens of people to the base’s perimeter, declaring their intention to “see them aliens.” Online forums and social media groups remain active, with some users insisting the federal government knows much more than it has revealed.
In recent years, military pilots and service members have reported hundreds of unexplained objects in restricted airspace, prompting some lawmakers to press the Pentagon for greater transparency and a clearer assessment of whether such phenomena pose a risk to aviation safety or national security.
