President Donald Trump on Thursday said he would direct all relevant agencies to release government files related to aliens and any information “connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters.”
Trump cited a heightened interest in extraterrestrials as the reason for his new order in a Truth Social post.
“Based on the tremendous interest shown, I will be directing the Secretary of War, and other relevant Departments and Agencies, to begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs), and any and all other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters,” Trump said.
The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office at the War Department is the defense office in charge of detecting and analyzing UAPs and determining possible risk. NASA also has a department dedicated to researching UAPs.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) backed Trump’s move and called it a “bipartisan thing.”
“I grew up watching The X-Files. If he’s going to release all of The X-Files, I think that could be a bipartisan thing,” Fetterman told Jesse Watters on Fox News, saying he believes alien life exists given the trillions of planets in the universe.
During a recent interview, former President Barack Obama said aliens are real but that they aren’t being held at Area 51 as online discourse has suggested for years and has been depicted in films and TV shows. Obama later clarified that during his tenure, he saw no evidence of aliens.
Trump called Obama’s comments “a big mistake” and said the former president was disclosing classified information.
While Trump now said he will make information on E.T.s public, he joked about the possibility early in the day, saying he would need to do so to get Obama “out of trouble.” He also joked that while he doesn’t know whether aliens exist, he knows “illegal aliens” are real.
TRUMP JOKES OBAMA MADE ‘BIG MISTAKE’ INSISTING ALIENS ARE REAL: ‘CLASSIFIED INFORMATION’
Lara Trump, Trump’s daughter-in-law, previously said that the president already has a speech prepared to announce information about life beyond Earth. She said the president was “coy” when she asked about the topic.
A reporter asked White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt about the supposed speech, but Leavitt said she is not aware of such a thing but that she would “check in” with the president’s speech writers.