Trump Directs Agencies to Begin Releasing Files on Aliens and UFOs

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – President Donald Trump said Thursday that he is directing federal agencies to begin identifying and releasing government files related to aliens, extraterrestrial life and unidentified flying objects, citing what he described as “tremendous interest” in the subject, according to reporting by The Associated Press.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote that he would direct 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,” as reported by the AP, The New York Times, The Washington Post and AFP.

Trump’s announcement came hours after he criticized former President Barack Obama for remarks made during a recent podcast appearance.

According to the AP and The New York Times, Obama said in the interview that aliens are “real,” adding that he had not seen them and that they were not being kept in Area 51. He also joked, “unless there’s this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president.”

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said of extraterrestrials, “I don’t know if they’re real or not,” according to the AP and The Washington Post. He also accused Obama of disclosing “classified information,” saying, “He gave classified information, he’s not supposed to be doing that,” as reported by The Washington Post and AFP. Trump did not specify what information he believed was classified.

Trump added that he might “get him out of trouble by declassifying,” referring to Obama, according to the AP and The New York Times. The White House referred reporters to Trump’s remarks when asked whether Obama had revealed classified information, The Washington Post reported.

Obama later clarified his comments on social media. According to The New York Times and The Washington Post, he wrote that “statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there,” but that the distances between solar systems make visitation unlikely. He added, “I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!”

The renewed focus on unidentified aerial phenomena follows years of heightened public and congressional interest. The AP reported that public attention increased after former Pentagon and government officials leaked Navy videos of unknown objects to The New York Times and Politico in 2017.

The scrutiny led Congress to hold the first hearings on UFOs in 50 years in May 2022, though officials said the objects, which appeared as green triangles above a Navy ship, were likely drones.

Since then, the Pentagon has pledged greater transparency. According to the AP, in July 2022 the Defense Department created the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) to serve as a central office to collect reports of military UFO encounters, taking over from an earlier task force.

In 2023, Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, then head of AARO, told reporters that he did not have any evidence “of any program having ever existed as a to do any sort of reverse engineering of any sort of extraterrestrial (unidentified aerial phenomena),” the AP reported.

An 18-page unclassified report submitted to Congress in June 2024 stated that service members had made 485 reports of unidentified phenomena over the previous year, with 118 cases determined to involve “prosaic objects such as various types of balloons, birds, and unmanned aerial systems,” according to the AP.

The report emphasized: “It is important to underscore that, to date, AARO has discovered no evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity, or technology.”

Similarly, AFP reported that in March 2024 the Pentagon released a report stating it had no proof that UAP were alien technology, with many sightings attributed to weather balloons, spy planes, satellites and other routine activity.

The New York Times reported that while many UFO sightings remain unsolved, the Pentagon has found no evidence that the government has covered up knowledge of extraterrestrial technology and has said there is no evidence that any sightings represented alien visitation to Earth.

Despite those findings, interest has persisted. The Washington Post reported that 56 percent of Americans believe aliens exist, according to a November poll conducted by YouGov. Government agencies have also released videos of aircraft that appeared unusual, prompting lawmakers to seek additional information, The Washington Post reported.

Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, suggested on a podcast this week that the president had prepared a speech about aliens that he would deliver at the “right time,” according to the AP and The Washington Post. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded with a laugh when asked about the claim and said, “A speech on aliens would be news to me,” the AP reported.

According to AFP, Trump did not specify whether classified documents would be released to the public as part of the directive. He reiterated in his Truth Social post that the files should include “any and all other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters.”

Trump has previously faced scrutiny over his handling of classified information, including documents found at his Mar-a-Lago residence after he left office, The Washington Post reported. However, in his remarks Thursday, he focused on Obama’s podcast comments, stating that the former president had made a “big mistake,” according to AFP and The Washington Post.

Asked directly whether aliens were real, Trump said, “I don’t know if they are real or not,” according to the AP and AFP. He added that he does not have an opinion on the matter and that “a lot of people believe it,” the AP reported.

No evidence has been produced of intelligent life beyond Earth, AFP reported.

Trump did not set a timeline for when the files would be released, according to The New York Times. The process, as described in his social media post, would begin with identifying relevant materials held by federal agencies.

The president’s directive marks the latest in a series of government actions in recent years aimed at addressing public interest in unidentified aerial phenomena, even as official reports have repeatedly stated that no evidence has been found of extraterrestrial contact.