Former U.S. President Donald Trump recently announced his intention to direct federal agencies to commence the release of government documents pertaining to aliens and unidentified flying objects (UFOs) on Thursday, February 19th. He characterized the issue as “very interesting and important” for the public, highlighting its significance.
In a social media post, Trump stated his plan to order Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other relevant agencies to declassify this information. He emphasized the profound public interest in the UFO phenomenon, asserting that the government needed to respond with greater transparency. This move underscores the ongoing public fascination with extraterrestrial life and government secrecy.
On the same day, during a trip to Georgia, Trump also leveled accusations against former President Barack Obama. Without providing any evidence, Trump claimed Obama had made a “big mistake” by openly discussing alien issues and allegedly leaking classified information. This accusation ignited further debate regarding the handling of sensitive information by former presidents.
“He took it from classified information… He shouldn’t have done that,” Trump told reporters, according to a Reuters report. Such strong claims, particularly without supporting evidence, immediately drew attention and scrutiny from the media and public alike.
Earlier, in an interview with podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen, released on Saturday, February 14th, Obama was directly asked about the existence of aliens. Obama responded with a humorous yet notably skeptical tone, reflecting a common public sentiment regarding the topic.
“They are real, but I haven’t seen them, and they are not hidden at… Area 51. There are no underground facilities unless there’s some massive conspiracy that’s even kept from the President of the United States,” he quipped. His remarks playfully dismissed popular conspiracy theories while maintaining a degree of openness about the unknown.
Area 51, a clandestine U.S. Air Force facility in Nevada, has long been the epicenter of conspiracy theories alleging the storage of alien remains and crashed extraterrestrial spacecraft. However, CIA archives declassified in 2013 revealed the facility’s true purpose: a top-secret testing site for spy planes during the Cold War era. This historical context provides a crucial counterpoint to the enduring myths.
There was no indication in Obama’s statement that he had disclosed any classified information. Furthermore, Obama’s office has yet to issue an official response to Trump’s specific allegations, leaving the accusations unaddressed by the former president’s team.
In an Instagram post on Sunday, February 15th, Obama reiterated, “I have not seen any evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrial beings have made contact with us. Truly!” This firm denial aimed to dispel any lingering speculation about his knowledge of alien encounters during his time in office.
He elaborated on his conviction that the statistical probability of life existing beyond Earth is quite high, considering the immense vastness of the universe. Nevertheless, he deemed the chances of such beings actually visiting Earth to be low due to the colossal interstellar distances involved, offering a scientific perspective on the likelihood of contact.
Interestingly, Trump himself conceded that he also has not witnessed any evidence of alien existence. “I don’t know if they’re real or not,” he stated, mirroring Obama’s personal lack of direct experience despite their differing public stances on government transparency regarding the issue.
The Pentagon has actively investigated numerous reports of UFO sightings in recent years. In 2022, senior U.S. military officials publicly affirmed that they had found no evidence of aliens ever visiting or landing on Earth, further tempering public expectations of extraterrestrial encounters.
A Pentagon report from 2024 further concluded that U.S. government investigations conducted since the end of World War II have yielded no evidence of extraterrestrial technology. The vast majority of reported sightings, it determined, were attributable to the misidentification of ordinary objects or common atmospheric phenomena, suggesting a more mundane explanation for many mysterious observations.
Meanwhile, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) website indicates that it holds numerous UFO-related archives, which are dispersed across various government document collections. This repository suggests that while official confirmation of alien life remains elusive, government interest in unidentified aerial phenomena has been a long-standing aspect of federal documentation.