- Trump says there is a lot of public interest in the topic.
- Trump says he doesn’t know if aliens are real.
- Accuses Obama of releasing classified material related to aliens.
President Donald Trump said Thursday he would direct federal agencies to begin releasing government files related to aliens and unidentified flying objects, citing 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 case “extremely interesting and important.”
Earlier in the day, Trump, without providing evidence, accused former President Barack Obama of improperly disclosing classified information when discussing foreigners in public, saying Obama “made a big mistake.”
“He took it out of classified information … He’s not supposed to do that,” Trump told reporters as he traveled to Georgia.
During an interview with podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen, released Saturday, Obama was asked if aliens were real.
“They’re real, but I haven’t seen them and they’re not being held at … Area 51. There’s no underground facility 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 have speculated holds alien bodies and a crashed spaceship. CIA archives released in 2013 said it was a test site for top-secret spy planes.
Pentagon investigations
There was no indication in Obama’s remarks that the former president was releasing classified information. Obama’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
“I saw no 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 that aliens exist by saying that the statistical odds of life outside of Earth were high because the universe is so vast. He added that the chances of extraterrestrial life visiting Earth were low given the distance.
Following his comments to Obama, Trump added that he had not seen evidence that aliens exist, 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 that aliens had visited Earth or crash-landed 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 records related to UFOs across numerous collections.
Area 51 myths
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 investigated incidents involved extraterrestrial technology or contact with alien life. The report further noted that investigators had uncovered no evidence that the unexplained sightings could be attributed to foreign adversaries.
Area 51, the secretive Cold War military installation in the Nevada desert, has long occupied a central place in conspiracy history. In 2013, the Central Intelligence Agency formally acknowledged the site’s existence, while rejecting claims involving crashed spacecraft, extraterrestrials, or staged moon landings.
Public curiosity has at times taken theatrical form. A few years ago, a loosely organized online campaign called “Storm Area 51” drew dozens of people to the perimeter of the base, declaring that they intended to “see them aliens.” Online forums and social media groups remain active, with some users insisting the federal government knows far 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.
