Trump says he's directing agencies to release files related to ‘extraterrestrial life' and UFOs

President Donald Trump said he will be directing the Pentagon and other federal agencies to begin the process of identifying and releasing documents related to "alien and extraterrestrial life."

In a post on his social media platform, Trump said he was directing the release of government files related to UFOs, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs) and "any and all other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters."

Trump said that the order was "based on the tremendous interest shown" in the topic.

The development comes after former President Barack Obama told a podcaster in an interview last week that aliens are "real" but that he hadn't seen them. Obama later clarified his comments in an Instagram post, saying "statistically, the universe is so vast that the the odds are good there's life out there" but that he saw "no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us."

On Thursday, Trump took aim at Obama's comments and criticized the former president, claiming he revealed "classified information."

"He's not supposed to be doing that," Trump claimed, without specifying what information was classified, adding that Obama made "a big mistake."

Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, "I don't know if they're real or not," and said of Obama, "I may get him out of trouble by declassifying."

Pressed on whether he believes aliens to be real, Trump responded: "Well I don't know if they are real or not. I can tell you he gave classified information. He's not supposed to be doing that," Trump said, adding later that he doesn't "have an opinion" on the matter.

In recent years, both the Pentagon and the director of National Intelligence have released annual reports disclosing incident reports of what the Pentagon refers to as Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, or UAP's.

The releases were prompted by congressional legislation spearheaded by then Sen. Marco Rubio, who is now serving as secretary of state and Trump's national security Adviser.

Since 2022, the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Agency (AARO) has investigated the hundreds of UAP incidents filed annually by military personnel and made their results public and has yet to find that any of them are of extraterrestrial origin.

The agency has also released previously classified videos popularized by UFO enthusiasts and provided real-world explanations for what may have been optical illusions picked up by sensor equipment.

AARO has also undertaken a wide-ranging review of decades of U.S. government investigations into UFO sightings, dating back to 1945, that has found no evidence that any of the sightings were extraterrestrial in origin and also found no evidence that the U.S. government or private companies have ever possessed extraterrestrial technology that has been secretly reverse-engineered.

The historical review was described by AARO officials as the most comprehensive governmentwide review ever of classified and unclassified U.S. government records related to UFO incidents and that all federal agencies had provided AARO with their historic information so it could be reviewed.

Trump has previously speculated that "there's no reason not to think" that alien life could potentially exist on Mars and other planets but has said that the topic was "not a big thing for me." Meanwhile, Obama said that "statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there's life out there."

In October of 2024, as his third bid for president was underway, Trump told podcaster Joe Rogan that UFOs and UAPs were not of "great interest" for him and that he was not a "believer."

in a campaign video with Donald Trump, Jr. in June 2020, Trump was asked about the existence of extraterrestrial life and responded: "I won't talk to you about what I know about it but it's very interesting."

Trump added: "But Roswell's a very interesting place with a lot of people that would like to know what's going on."