‘Extremely interesting’: Trump says he will release files on aliens and UFOs

US President Donald Trump says he will release government files related to extraterrestrial and extraterrestrial life.

He posted on his social media platform Truth Social that he will “direct the Secretary of War and other relevant departments and agencies to initiate the process of identifying and declassifying government records relating to extraterrestrial and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs)…”

Trump said the move comes after “tremendous interest” has been shown, possibly after former US President Barack Obama said last week:[aliens] are real.”

Obama appeared on No Lie, a podcast hosted by American YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen. When asked if aliens are real, he replied: “They are real, but I haven’t seen them.”

“They are not being held at Area 51 [a top secret US Air Force facility]. There is no underground facility unless there is a massive conspiracy and they have hidden it from the President of the United States,” Obama continued.

During the nearly fifty-minute interview with Cohen, it was the comments during a quick round of questions that took the internet by storm. One TikTok video of Obama’s response was viewed six million times.

Since the interview, he has issued a statement clarifying that his response was in keeping with “the spirit of the quick question round.”

“Statistically, the universe is so vast that there’s a good chance there is life there. But the distances between solar systems are so great that the chance we’ve been visited by aliens is slim, and I’ve seen no evidence of aliens contacting us during my presidency. Really!” Obama wrote in a caption alongside the video.

Trump had previously said Obama had “made a big mistake” in discussing aliens by claiming without evidence that he had released classified information.

When asked what he thought of Obama’s comment that aliens are real, Trump said: “Well, I don’t know if they’re real or not, but he gave classified information, he’s not supposed to do that.”

He then said that he has no opinion on aliens, but said that “a lot of people believe it.”

“Maybe I can get him out of trouble by releasing the classification.”

It is unclear when the files will be released.

What do we already know about UFOs?

The first public meeting on UFOs was held just three years ago, where a NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) panel outlined the findings – showing that 5 percent of observed sightings remain unexplained.

And the unexplained cases are mainly due to the lack of high-quality data, according to Science Mission Directorate Nicola Fox.

There is not enough data that “can be used to draw definitive scientific conclusions about the nature and origin of UAP,” she said in September 2023.

The panel provided a detailed overview of the 800 reports they had received over the past 27 years.

If we receive about 50 to 100 reports per month, many “anomalous” observations represent only 2 to 5 percent.

The panel said at the time that there were no signs of extraterrestrial life.

“We haven’t found life beyond Earth yet, but we are looking,” said David Spergel, chairman of the UAP team.

Some of the reports noted during the meeting came from Australia, and Spergel called them confusing.

In 1998, astronomers at the Parkes Observatory in NSW reported irregular and strange radio signals called perytons once or twice a year that “had a very strange structure”, Spergel said.

“People couldn’t figure out what was going on.”

The signals remained unexplained until 2015, when new technology discovered they were identical to those of a microwave oven.

The observatory’s microwave was tested, but no perytons were detected when the microwave was operating as usual.

But when the door was opened before the microwave time was up, the perytons were there.

“What had happened was that the people at the observatory were heating up their lunch in the microwave,” Spergel said.

“It produced a burst of radio signals that were picked up by sensitive detectors.”

NASA’s last sign of life was in September 2025, when their Perseverance Mars rover collected a sample from an ancient dry riverbed. NASA said it could preserve evidence of ancient microbial life.

The sample, called Sapphire Canyon, comes from a rock called Cheyava Falls and contains potential biosignatures, according to an article in the journal Nature.

A potential biosignature is a substance or structure that may have a biological origin, but requires more data or further research before a conclusion can be drawn about the absence or presence of life.

Since the 2023 meeting, NASA said their investigations will improve with artificial intelligence and technology.