Do aliens really exist? Trump to release files on UFOs, aliens after ‘tremendous interest shown’

US President Donald Trump on Thursday said he will instruct federal agencies to begin releasing government records related to aliens and unidentified flying objects, citing what he described as significant public interest in the subject.

In a social media post, Trump said he would direct Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth and other agencies to make the information public, calling the issue “extremely interesting and important.”

Trump accuses Obama

Earlier in the day, Trump accused former President Barack Obama of improperly revealing classified information while discussing aliens in public, though he did not provide evidence to support the claim. He said Obama “made a big mistake.”

“He took it out of classified information ... He’s not supposed to be doing that,” Trump told reporters while en route to Georgia.

Trump’s remarks came after a podcast interview released on Saturday in which Obama addressed the question of extraterrestrial life. Speaking to host Brian Tyler Cohen, Obama said: “They’re real, but I haven’t seen them, and they’re not being kept in ... Area 51. There’s no underground facility unless there’s this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president of the United States.”

There was no indication in Obama’s comments that he disclosed classified material. His office did not respond to requests for comment.

Do aliens really exist?

The issue has been examined repeatedly by the Pentagon in recent years. In 2022, senior military officials said investigations had uncovered no evidence that aliens had visited or crash-landed on Earth.

A 2024 Pentagon report similarly concluded that U.S. government probes since the end of World War Two found no evidence of extraterrestrial technology and that most reported sightings were misidentified conventional objects or natural phenomena.

Area 51, the classified Air Force facility in Nevada frequently cited in conspiracy theories, was described in CIA archives released in 2013 as a testing site for top-secret spy aircraft.

(With inputs from Reuters)