![\"\"](\"http:\/\/stateofthenation.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Screenshot-2026-02-20-at-8.39.26-AM.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Donald Trump has\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0he is directing the defense department and other agencies to release whatever files they have on the search for alien life.<\/p>\n In a post on his social media platform, Trump said that he will ask the defense secretary and others \u201cto begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs).\u201d<\/p>\n Comments from Trump\u2019s predecessor, Barack Obama,\u00a0went viral last weekend after<\/a>\u00a0podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen asked the former president if aliens are \u201creal.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re real, but I haven\u2019t seen them,\u201d Obama responded. \u201cAnd they\u2019re not being kept in, what is it? Area 51. There\u2019s no underground facility, unless there\u2019s this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n On Thursday, Trump accused Obama of disclosing \u201cclassified information\u201d.<\/p>\n The president told reporters aboard Air Force One, \u201cI don\u2019t know if they\u2019re real or not,\u201d and said of Obama, \u201cI may get him out of trouble by declassifying.\u201d<\/p>\n Obama clarified earlier this week that he had not seen evidence that aliens \u201chave made contact with us,\u201d but said, \u201cstatistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there\u2019s life out there.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump told reporters Thursday that when it came to the prospect of extraterrestrial visitors: \u201cI don\u2019t have an opinion on it. I never talk about it. A lot of people do. A lot of people believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s daughter-in-law Lara Trump suggested this week that he was ready to speak about it, however, when she said on a podcast that the president had a speech prepared to deliver on aliens that he would give at the \u201cright time.\u201d<\/p>\n That was news to the White House. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded with a laugh when she was asked about it Wednesday and told reporters, \u201cA speech on aliens would be news to me.\u201d<\/p>\n Public interest in UFOs and the possibility of the government hiding secrets of extraterrestrial life re-emerged after a group of former Pentagon and government\u00a0officials leaked Navy videos of unknown objects<\/a>\u00a0to US media in 2017. The renewed scrutiny prompted Congress to hold the first hearings on UFOs in 50 years in May 2022, though officials said that the objects, which appeared to be green triangles floating above a Navy ship, were likely drones.<\/p>\n Since then the Pentagon\u00a0has promised more transparency on the topic<\/a>. The information that has been made public shows that the vast majority of UFO reports made by the military go unsolved but the ones that are identified are largely benign in nature.<\/p>\n