Donald Trump orders Pentagon, agencies to release UFO files

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U.S. President Donald Trump directed the Pentagon and other government agencies to release files on aliens and UFOs due to “tremendous interest” after earlier saying that doing so might get former president Barack Obama “out of trouble.”

Trump posted the edict on his Truth Social account Thursday night after accusing Obama of leaking “classified information” during a podcast appearance where he suggested extraterrestrials were real.

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Obama later walked back his comments, saying that he had not seen evidence of first contact but that “statistically the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there.”

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“Well, he gave classified information; he’s not supposed to be doing that,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One when asked about Obama’s comments. “I don’t know if they’re real or not, but he gave classified information … he made a big mistake.

“I don’t have an opinion on it. I don’t talk about it. A lot of people do. A lot of people believe it.”

‘Highly complex’ subject

Trump later added that “maybe I’ll get him (Obama) out of trouble. I’ll get him out of trouble by declassifying.”

The president later posted on social media that he was directing the Department of War and “other relevant departments and agencies” to release files related to aliens, extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena and UFOs, calling them “highly complex, but extremely interesting and important matters.”

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The announcement came after Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump suggested on another podcast earlier this week that the president planned to speak on the topic and had a speech prepared on aliens that he would give at the “right time.”

Her comments caught the White House off guard, according to The Associated Press, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt responding with a laugh on Wednesday when she was asked about the possibility of such a speech.

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White House caught off guard

“A speech on aliens would be news to me,” she told reporters, via The Associated Press.

Public interest in UFOs and the possibility of the government covering up secrets about extraterrestrial life re-emerged after a group of former Pentagon and government officials leaked navy videos of unknown objects to the New York Times and Politico in 2017.

The renewed scrutiny prompted Congress to hold the first hearings on UFOs in 50 years in May 2022, though officials said that the objects, which appeared to be green triangles floating above a navy ship, were likely drones.

Since then, the Pentagon has promised more transparency on the topic and in July 2022 created the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office to collect reports of all military UFO encounters.

— With files from The Associated Press.

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