WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says the Pentagon is preparing to release some “very interesting” UFO files discovered by his administration, generating a mix of buzz and skepticism as he hints at new discoveries about alien life.
Trump began stirring up interest in extraterrestrials in February, directing federal agencies to release their data on extraterrestrial life and UFOs. Since then, he has created suspense with tantalizing updates, teasing an imminent release of documents not previously shared by the US government.
“We’re going to release a lot of things that we haven’t done,” Trump said Wednesday at a White House event celebrating NASA astronauts. “I think some of it will be very interesting to people.”
Trump has enjoyed portraying himself as the leaker president. In his first week back in office, he ordered the release of information related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. The discoveries revealed little beyond what was already known.
Following that release, Trump said “the American people deserve transparency and the truth.” Now, as he returns from heaven, the president has struck a similar tone, suggesting that answers to age-old questions may be on the way. His February directive on social media called for transparency about “alien and extraterrestrial life, Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) and Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs).
“The first releases will start very, very soon,” he told supporters in April at a Turning Point USA event in Phoenix. “So you can go out and see if this phenomenon is correct. You will understand.”
An expert warns against raising expectations
Even before Trump’s directive, the Pentagon was in a years-long process to declassify and release government documents related to UFOs, now often referred to as Unexplained Anomalous Phenomena, or UAP.
Citing national security concerns, Congress created an office in 2022 to investigate the WAP and declassify as much material as possible. The bureau’s debut report for 2024 revealed hundreds of new UAP incidents, but found no evidence that the US government had ever confirmed a discovery of alien technology. A second report covering more recent sightings is expected soon.
According to a Pentagon statement, that agency, the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office, is now working with the White House to release “never-before-seen UAP information.”
The former director of the office, however, said Trump’s promises were false, a “shiny object” to distract Americans from war with Iran. Sean Kirkpatrick, a physicist and former career intelligence officer who led the office until 2023, said he has looked at government records and believes there are no bombshell discoveries to be found.
“Readers should not get their hopes up that there will be any documentary with photos, interviewing the aliens when they land,” he said. “Because that just doesn’t exist.”
Videos purporting to show alien technology tend to have mundane explanations, he said. Modern infrared cameras used by the U.S. military often capture jet engines and other hot objects in a long thermal bloom, which, Kirkpatrick said, explains viral videos of fast pill-shaped objects.
Pentagon not given in UAP reports, GOP-led panel says
On Capitol Hill, these kinds of videos have caught the attention of a small group of Trump-aligned Republicans who insist the Pentagon is keeping secrets.
The Task Force on Declassification of Federal Secrets has conducted its own investigation into reports of mysterious aircraft near US military installations, which the panel says pose a threat to national security and the armed forces.
Last fall, the task force heard testimony from current and former service members describing encounters with UAP. In one case, a senior Navy officer said he was off the coast of California in 2023 when he saw a glowing “Tic Tac”-shaped object rise out of the ocean and connect with three similar objects. They sped away in an instant, he said.
Trump’s interest in the topic has energized congressional Republicans, including Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, an Air Force veteran who co-chairs the task force. Luna has criticized what she calls “less than adequate” transparency from the Pentagon.
In a March letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Luna requested dozens of UAP videos identified by whistleblowers and tagged with names such as “cloud spherical UAP.” Her Hegseth deadline came and went and no videos were produced.
Trump’s entry into the UFO fray drew applause from Luna, who last year told podcaster Joe Rogan that she had seen evidence of “interdimensional beings.” The Pentagon “can no longer hide from our documents request!” Luna said on social media after Trump’s directive.
Vance claims to be ‘obsessed’ with UFO files
Trump seems skeptical about the existence of extraterrestrial life. Addressing the Turning Point USA crowd in Phoenix, he said: “I thought this was a good crowd because I know you guys, you’re really interested. I don’t know if I am.”
Why he made the revelation at that event, held in a megachurch, is unclear. The day before, Trump had spoken in Las Vegas, not far from Area 51, a top-secret Cold War test site that has fueled UFO conspiracy theories.
Vice President JD Vance has described himself as “obsessed” with UFO files. In March, he said he has been trying to find time to investigate Area 51 since taking office.
“I still have three years left as vice president,” Vance told conservative podcaster Benny Johnson. “I’m going to the bottom of the UFO files.” Invoking his Christian faith, Vance said he believes the reported alien sightings are actually the work of spiritual demons.
Even before Trump broached the subject, alien buzz was already in the air.
It’s back in Hollywood with an upcoming Steven Spielberg film, Discovery Day. Former President Barack Obama made headlines in February when he declared on a podcast that aliens are real. He later clarified that he had not seen any evidence, but that “the chances are good that there is life there.”
Trump is not the first president to be drawn to the mysteries of UFOs. President Bill Clinton has said he once ordered a review of the Roswell Incident — something crashed in 1947 on a farm in New Mexico and officials later said the debris was the remains of a high-altitude weather balloon — around its 50th anniversary in 1997. Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan had seen UFOs in the White House before their time.
The U.S. government has investigated reports of UFOs since the 1940s, in part to determine whether they represent advanced technology from competing countries or “evidence of extraterrestrial technology,” according to a 2024 Defense Department report.
In online communities devoted to UFOs, some see Trump’s promise as a step in the right direction; others believe there will be nothing. For people who follow the subject closely, promises of big discoveries have never lived up to the hype, said Greg Eghigian, a Pennsylvania State University professor who wrote a book on the history of UFO sightings.
“There is almost no satisfaction that is possible for many of the really brave people,” he said. “So in a sense, I think disappointment can almost be guaranteed to be expected regardless of what comes of this.”
By COLLIN BINKLEY Associated Press
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