WASHINGTON: In a development that has sparked renewed interest in the world over the existence of aliens, US President Donald Trump has ordered government agencies to start working on the release of files on aliens, UFOs, and unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs).
The move was announced during a speech from aboard Air Force One and was followed up with a posting on Truth Social, where Trump explained that the move was made in response to “tremendous public interest” in the area. Trump told various government agencies, including the Pentagon, to start “identifying and releasing” files on what he described as “highly complex but extremely interesting matters.”
The move came after Trump criticized former President Barack Obama, who recently caused a stir when he told a podcast that aliens are “real.” Trump claimed that Obama was sharing “classified information,” but he had no evidence to back up his claim.
Obama later clarified his statements, saying that he was referring to the mathematical probability of life existing elsewhere in the universe, rather than any kind of contact that has been made. He added that during his time in office, he had not seen any evidence that aliens had visited Earth, and that he did not believe any of the conspiracy theories about secret alien bases at Area 51.
Trump, on the other hand, has refrained from supporting the idea of aliens. “I don’t know if they’re real or not,” he said in a statement to the press, adding that he rarely talks about the subject despite the general public’s interest in it.
The interest in UFOs has been on the rise in the US over the past decade, especially after a 2017 report exposed a secret Pentagon program that had been studying encounters reported by military pilots. The topic received further attention when Congress held the first UFO hearings in over fifty years in 2022 and created a new office to compile and study UFO sightings.
Despite the official results, however, there has been no evidence of contact with aliens yet. A Pentagon report released in 2024 stated that there was “no evidence” of contact with alien life by the US government, attributing most of the sightings to drones, weather balloons, or other mundane objects.
Even without any confirmed discoveries at this point, Trump’s order is bound to fuel public expectation and public discourse. While supporters of transparency argue that the release of more documents could lay to rest conspiracy theories, others argue that this action could simply fuel more theories without contributing any new facts.
What kind of discoveries can we expect from the next batch of files, or will they simply reiterate what we already know? At this point, it’s hard to say. The prospect of new declassified files about UFOs has again brought the question of life beyond Earth from the world of science fiction to the world of politics.
