President Donald Trump on Thursday directed the Pentagon and other federal agencies to identify and release government files related to extraterrestrials and unidentified flying objects, tapping into renewed public fascination with UFOs and longstanding questions about official secrecy.

In a late-night post on his social media platform, Trump said he had ordered agencies to declassify records 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.”

The announcement followed Trump’s criticism earlier in the day of former President Barack Obama, who suggested during a recent podcast interview that alien life could exist somewhere in the universe. Trump accused Obama of discussing “classified information” and hinted that his declassification push could serve as political cover.

“I don’t know if they’re real or not,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “I may get him out of trouble by declassifying.”

Obama later clarified that he had not seen evidence of extraterrestrial contact, saying only that “statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there.”

Trump, who has alternated between curiosity and skepticism on the issue, struck a noncommittal tone when pressed further. “I don’t have an opinion on it. I never talk about it,” he said. “A lot of people do. A lot of people believe it.”

The comments were amplified this week by Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, who said on a podcast that the president had prepared a speech about aliens that he would deliver at “the right time.” The White House distanced itself from the claim. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt laughed off the suggestion, saying Wednesday, “A speech on aliens would be news to me.”

Public interest in UFOs surged in 2017 after former Pentagon and intelligence officials shared Navy footage of unidentified objects with The New York Times and Politico. The reports sparked bipartisan concern and helped lead to Congress’s first public UFO hearings in half a century in May 2022.

Some of the most prominent videos, including footage showing what appeared to be green triangular objects near a Navy vessel, were later assessed by officials as likely drones or optical artifacts.

In response to growing scrutiny, the Pentagon has sought to present itself as more transparent. In July 2022, it created the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office to centralize and analyze reports of unexplained aerial encounters, replacing an earlier task force.

Then-director Sean Kirkpatrick said in 2023 that he had seen no evidence of secret programs aimed at reverse-engineering alien technology.

“I have seen no evidence of any program having ever existed to do any sort of reverse engineering,” he told reporters at the time.

Official assessments have largely reinforced that conclusion. An unclassified 18-page report submitted to Congress in June 2024 said service members filed 485 reports of unidentified phenomena over the previous year. Of those, 118 were traced to “prosaic objects such as various types of balloons, birds, and unmanned aerial systems.”

“It is important to underscore that, to date, AARO has discovered no evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity, or technology,” the report concluded.

Still, Trump’s latest directive signals a willingness to reopen the issue, blending transparency rhetoric with political theater. Whether the effort produces meaningful new disclosures — or merely fuels speculation — remains an open question.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYc)