Trump says he will direct government agencies to release files related to extraterrestrial life and UFOs
CNN
By Aileen Graef, CNN
(CNN) — President Donald Trump on Thursday said he will direct the Pentagon and other federal agencies to release government records related to extraterrestrial life and UFOs.
“Based on the tremendous interest shown, I will be directing the Secretary of War, and other relevant Departments and Agencies, to begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs), and any and all other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters,” he said in a post on Truth Social.
It was not immediately clear what information the records contain or when they would be released. The Pentagon in recent years has expanded efforts to catalog, track and investigate reports of UFOs through its All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, which reiterated in a 2024 report that it has found no evidence of alien life.
Trump’s remarks come after former President Barack Obama drew media attention over the weekend when he appeared to confirm the existence of aliens in an interview with podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen.
“They’re real but I haven’t seen them,” Obama said when asked whether aliens are real.
The former president later clarified in an Instagram post that he was referring to the statistical likelihood of life existing on other planets given the vastness of the universe.
“But the distances between solar systems are so great that the chances we’ve been visited by aliens is low, and I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us,” he added.
When asked about the comments on Thursday, Trump said on Air Force One, “Well, I don’t know if they’re real or not. I can tell you he gave classified information. He’s not supposed to be doing that. He made a big mistake.”
The topic of UAPs or unidentified anomalous phenomena – commonly known as UFOs – has garnered tremendous public attention, fueled in part by conspiracy theories about the US government hiding evidence of aliens.
There have been pushes in recent years for more transparency on the matter, including a 2023 House hearing where three military veterans warned that the sightings of UAPs are a national security problem and that the government has been too secretive about them.
The Pentagon, working with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and other government agencies, had received a total of 1,652 reports of UAPs as of 2024, according to a report published that year.
Some of the sightings still have not been explained, while others have been attributed to “balloon or balloon-entities,” as well as drones, birds, weather events or airborne debris like plastic bags.
Jon Kosloski, the director of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, acknowledged in 2024 that a number of cases had not yet been plausibly explained, requiring additional data and analysis.
Kosloski said some of these were “interesting cases that I – my physics and engineering background, and time in the (intelligence community) – I do not understand, and I don’t know anybody else who understands them either.”
This story has been updated with additional details.
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