Trump Promises Declassification of Long-Hidden UFO Files After Blasting Obama Over Alien Comments

The president of the United States used his social media account on Thursday evening to announce he would direct the Department of Defense to begin releasing classified records on unidentified flying objects. The post promised government files on “alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena, and unidentified flying objects.”

Hours earlier, the same president had accused his predecessor of committing a security violation by discussing the existence of extraterrestrial life during a podcast interview. The convergence of these two events has placed the Pentagon‘s long-running investigations into unexplained aerial encounters at the intersection of presidential politics and classification policy.

No administration in American history has formally committed to a systematic release of government records pertaining to potential non-human intelligence. The White House has not specified which documents might be made public, when any release might occur, or whether the review will encompass material from previous administrations dating back decades.

A Social Media Post, a Podcast, and a Political Crossfire

President Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on February 19 that he would 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.”

The full text of the directive on Truth Social remains accessible on the president’s account. The post cited “the tremendous interest shown” as the basis for the directive. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt amplified the message on X, calling the announcement “OUT OF THIS WORLD NEWS.” Officials confirmed no timeline has been established for when any documents might be reviewed or made available to the public.

The president’s announcement followed his criticism of former President Barack Obama over comments Obama made during an appearance on Brian Tyler Cohen’s podcast, released February 15. On the program, Obama said: “They’re real, but I haven’t seen them, and they’re not being kept in Area 51. There’s no underground facility unless there’s this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president of the United States.”

Obama subsequently clarified his remarks in an Instagram post, explaining that he meant “the odds are good there’s life out there” and stated he had seen “no evidence” of alien existence during his term in office. The exchange between the two presidents was covered by Sky News, which detailed Trump’s accusation that Obama had leaked classified information.

When Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy asked President Trump about Obama’s comments on February 19, Trump responded: “He’s not supposed to be doing that. He made a big mistake.” Asked whether he personally believes aliens are real, Trump said: “I don’t know if they’re real or not. I don’t have an opinion on it. I never talk about it. A lot of people do. A lot of people believe it.” Trump later told Doocy: “I may get him out of trouble by declassifying.”

The discussion surrounding potential disclosure took an additional turn when Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, suggested on the Pod Force One podcast that Trump has prepared remarks on extraterrestrial life. “I’ve heard kind of around, I think my father-in-law has actually said it, that there is some speech that he has, that I guess at the right time, I don’t know when the right time is, he’s going to break out and talk about and it has to do with maybe some sort of extraterrestrial life,” she said. Leavitt responded to the claim on February 19, telling reporters: “A speech on aliens would be news to me.”

What the Government Already Said, What It Keeps Quiet, and What Happens Next

The House Oversight Committee held a hearing in July 2023 featuring David Grusch, a former military intelligence officer and whistleblower. Grusch alleged that the Pentagon and other agencies operated a “multi-decade” effort to reverse engineer nonhuman technology recovered from crash sites. He claimed direct involvement in retrieval programs. The Pentagon has denied these allegations. In 2022, a House Intelligence subcommittee convened the first congressional hearing on UFOs in more than 50 years. Officials overseeing a Pentagon task force investigating UAPs testified before lawmakers at that session.

The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, established in 2022, continues to investigate reported incidents. Its 2024 historical report, mandated by Congress, concluded that no investigation had confirmed the existence of extraterrestrial technology or recovered materials.

The report attributed most unresolved cases to sensor anomalies, misidentification, or insufficient data. The AARO’s most recent quarterly update, released in January 2026, indicated that 87 percent of newly reported UAP cases had been attributed to ordinary objects including drones, birds, weather balloons, and airborne debris. The remaining cases remain under active investigation due to insufficient data.

Federal declassification requires originating agencies to review documents for information protected under national security exemptions, including intelligence sources and methods, nuclear weapons data, or information that could compromise ongoing operations. The Presidential Records Act governs the release of documents from previous administrations, though former presidents retain certain privileges over their records.

Pentagon records on UAP date back to the U.S. Air Force’s Project Blue Book, which investigated 12,618 reported sightings between 1947 and 1969. Of those, 701 cases remained officially classified as “unidentified” when the project closed. More recent records include observations documented by Navy and Air Force pilots between 2014 and the present, some of which have been confirmed in declassified videos released by the Pentagon between 2017 and 2020.

The president’s directive does not specify which agencies beyond the Department of Defense will participate in document identification. No date has been set for any subsequent announcement, and the White House has not indicated whether released files would be made available through a centralized repository or processed through standard Freedom of Information Act channels.

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