Do aliens really exist? Answer may come soon as Trump orders release of US files on extra terrestrials, UFOs
Trump told reporters he had no fixed view on the matter. “I don’t have an opinion on it. I never talk about it. A lot of people do. A lot of people believe it,” he said while ordering the release of US files on UFOs and extraterrestrials.
US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he has directed the Pentagon and other federal agencies to identify and release files related to extraterrestrials and UFOs, citing what he described as “tremendous interest” in the subject.
The announcement came hours after Trump accused former President Barack Obama of revealing “classified information” during a recent podcast appearance in which Obama speculated about the possibility of alien life. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said, “I don’t know if they’re real or not,” adding that he might “get him out of trouble by declassifying.”
In a post on his social media platform later that night, Trump said he was instructing government agencies to release files related to “alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena, and unidentified flying objects, and any and all other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters.”
Obama later clarified that he had seen no evidence that aliens “have made contact with us,” though he noted that, statistically, the vastness of the universe makes the existence of life elsewhere plausible.
Trump told reporters he had no fixed view on the matter. “I don’t have an opinion on it. I never talk about it. A lot of people do. A lot of people believe it,” he said.
His daughter in law, Lara Trump, suggested on a podcast that the president was prepared to address the topic at the “right time” and had a speech ready. The claim appeared to surprise the White House. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded with a laugh when asked about it, saying a speech on aliens “would be news to me.”
Public interest in UFOs surged again in 2017 after former Pentagon and government officials provided US Navy videos of unidentified objects to The New York Times and Politico. The renewed attention led Congress to hold its first UFO hearings in 50 years in May 2022, although officials later indicated that the objects, which appeared as green triangles above a Navy vessel, were likely drones.
In July 2022, the Pentagon established the All domain Anomaly Resolution Office to centralise reports of military encounters with unidentified phenomena. In 2023, its then director, Dr Sean Kirkpatrick, said he had found no evidence of any programme aimed at reverse engineering extraterrestrial technology.
An 18 page unclassified report submitted to Congress in June 2024 stated that service members had filed 485 reports of unidentified phenomena over the previous year. Of these, 118 were attributed to ordinary objects such as balloons, birds and unmanned aerial systems.
The report emphasised that, to date, investigators have found no evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity or technology.
Also read: Obama says aliens likely exist but dismisses claims of secret US cover-up