Pic of UFO downed by US fighter jet (Pic credit: MJ Schwab’s X account)
Unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, have captured the imagination of Americans for decades. And now UFOs and aliens are back in the news in America. While the interest in UFOs and UAP has been renewed in recent years as the US government probed numerous reports of seemingly supernatural aircraft, amid worries that enemies could be testing highly advanced technologies, what has made them hit headlines is President Trump ordering release of data on UFOs and aliens. In a post on social media platform earlier this week, President Trump said, “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).” Trump said that he’s directing the Pentagon and other government agencies to identify and release files related to extraterrestrials and UFOs because of “tremendous interest.”Trump’s post came just days after former President Barack Obama spoke about UFOs and aliens in a podcast. “They’re real, but I haven’t seen them and they’re not being kept in… Area 51,” Obama told host Brian Tyler Cohen, referring to the top-secret US military facility in Nevada at the heart of many UFO conspiracy theories. “There’s no underground facility. Unless, there’s this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president of the United States.”
Commenting on Obama’s comments, Trump said, Obama gave reporters “classified information, he is not supposed to be doing that.” The President did not, however, specify what part of Obama’s remarks were classified, but claimed “he made a big mistake.” Obama, on his part, later clarified that he had not seen evidence that aliens “have made contact with us,” but said, “statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there.”
What is classified information on UFOs and Aliens
Trump on his part did not specify to the media whether classified documents would be released to the public, Trump added that the files should include “any and all other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters.” For his own beliefs about aliens, Trump, 79, said “I don’t know if they are real or not.”
What US government and Pentagon have said on UFOs
UFOs have been part of discussions of Congress for years, reportedly mostly due to bipartisan concerns about transparency and national security. Congress held a series of hearings from 2022 to 2024 as part of an investigation into UAPs and national security.In 2021, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) confirmed that UAPs are real, but there’s no confirmation they stem from some extraterrestrial origin. An 18-page unclassified report submitted to Congress in June 2024 said that service members had made 485 reports of unidentified phenomena in the past year but 118 cases were found to be “prosaic objects such as various types of balloons, birds, and unmanned aerial systems.” The report was presented in an attempt to be more transparent and address potential national security questions, as Washington has taken up the charge to publicize and legitimize the study of unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAPs. As a report in Axios says that the Pentagon has largely maintained that there is no evidence of alien technology nor any hidden programs within the government related to UAPs. In 2024, an unclassified Pentagon report mainly found that several of the sightings in the 1950s and ’60s were likely caused by tests of advanced US spy planes and other technology. The report added that there was no evidence of confirmed extraterrestrial activity related to UAPs.
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