Washington — Washington (AFP) – President Donald Trump He says the Pentagon is preparing to release some “very interesting” UFO files uncovered by his department, generating a mix of hype and skepticism while hinting at new discoveries about… Life’s strange questions.
Trump began raising interest in aliens last February. Guidance for federal agencies To release their related records Extraterrestrial life and unidentified flying objects. Since then, he has built suspense with exciting updates, teasing the imminent release of documents never before shared by the US government.
“We’re going to launch a lot of things that we haven’t done,” Trump said Wednesday at a White House event celebrating NASA astronauts. “I think some of it will be very interesting to people.”
Trump has enjoyed portraying himself as a president who reveals secrets. In the first week of his return to office, he ordered Release records Relating to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. These disclosures revealed little about what was already known.
In the lead-up to this release, Trump said that “the American people deserve transparency and truth.” Now, as he turned toward the sky, the president struck a similar tone, suggesting that answers to decades-old questions may be on the way. His February directive on social media called for transparency about “extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs).”
“The first launches will begin very soon,” he told supporters in April. The turning point occurred in the United States of America In Phoenix. “So you can go out and see if this phenomenon is true. You will find out.”
Even before Trump’s directive, the Pentagon had spent years in the process of declassifying and releasing government documents related to unidentified flying objects, often referred to as unexplained anomalous phenomena, or UAP.
Given national security concerns, Congress established an office in 2022 to investigate the UAP and declassify as much of the material as possible. The office First report for 2024 It uncovered hundreds of new UAP incidents but found no evidence that the US government had ever confirmed a sighting of alien technology. A second report covering the more recent sightings is expected soon.
that agency, Office for resolving anomalies in all fieldsIt is now working with the White House to release “unprecedented UAP information,” according to a Pentagon statement.
However, the former director of the bureau said that Trump’s promises were merely a threat, a “shiny object” to distract Americans from the matter. War with Iran. Sean Kirkpatrick, a physicist and former intelligence officer who led the office until 2023, said he had reviewed government records and believed no startling discoveries had been made.
“Readers should not get their hopes up that there will be some documents containing photographs to interview the aliens when they landed,” he said. “Because that doesn’t exist.”
Videos purporting to show alien technology tend to have layman explanations, he said. Modern infrared cameras used by the U.S. military often capture jet engines and other hot objects in long thermal blooms, which explains, Kirkpatrick said, widespread videos of fast, pill-shaped objects.
On Capitol Hill, these types of videos have caught the attention of a small group of Republicans allied with Trump who insist the Pentagon is keeping secrets.
The Federal Secrets Declassification Task Force is conducting its own investigation into reports of mysterious aircraft near U.S. military facilities, which the committee says pose a threat to national security and the armed forces.
Last fall, Task Force I heard testimony of current and former service members who described UAP encounters. In one case, a senior Navy officer said he was off the coast of California in 2023 when he saw a glowing “tic-tac-shaped” object emerge from the ocean and connect to three similar objects. He said they sped up in an instant.
Trump’s interest in the issue has energized Republicans in Congress, including Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, an Air Force veteran who co-chairs the task force. Luna criticized what she called “inadequate” transparency from the Pentagon.
In the March letter to Defense Minister Pete Hegseth Luna claimed dozens of UAP videos that were identified by whistleblowers and labeled with names like “Spherical UAP in clouds.” Her deadline for Hegseth came and went, and no videos were produced.
Trump’s entry into the UFO fray has drawn approval from Luna, who told host Joe Rogan last year that she had seen evidence of the existence of “interdimensional beings.” The Pentagon “Can’t Hide From Requesting Our Documents Anymore!” Luna said on social media after Trump’s directive.
Trump appears skeptical about the existence of extraterrestrial life. Addressing the Turning Point USA crowd in Phoenix, he said: “I thought this was a good crowd because I know you people, you’re really into it. I don’t know if I am.”
It is not clear why he announced this at this event, which was held in a major church. A day earlier, Trump had spoken in Las Vegas, not far away Area 51a top-secret Cold War test site that fueled UFO conspiracy theories.
Vice President J.D. Vance described himself as “obsessed” with the UFO files. In March, he said he had been trying to find time to investigate Area 51 since taking office.
“I still have three more years as vice president,” Vance told conservative podcaster Bennie Johnson. “I’m going to get to the bottom of the UFO files.” Citing his Christian faith, Vance said he believes the reported alien sightings are actually the work of spiritual demons.
Even before Trump addressed the topic, there was already buzz about aliens in the air.
She’s back in Hollywood with an upcoming movie Steven Spielberg movie“Disclosure Day.” Former President Barack Obama caused a stir in February when he made the announcement on a podcast Aliens are real. He later explained that he saw no evidence but that “the odds are good that there is life out there.”
Trump is not the first president to be drawn to the mysteries of UFOs. President Bill Clinton said he once ordered a review of the Roswell incident — which crashed in 1947 on a New Mexico ranch, and officials later said the wreckage was the remains of a high-altitude weather balloon — on the 50th anniversary of its occurrence in 1997. Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan claimed to have seen UFOs before they were in the White House.
The U.S. government has investigated reports of UFOs since the 1940s, in part to determine whether they represent advanced technology from rival nations or “evidence of off-world technology,” according to Department of Defense 2024 Report.
In online communities dedicated to UFOs, some see Trump’s promise as a step in the right direction; Others think it will amount to nothing. For people who follow the subject closely, the promises of big discoveries never lived up to the hype, said Greg Eghegian, a Penn State University professor who wrote a book on the history of UFO sightings.
“There is almost no satisfaction possible for many people who are really intolerant,” he said. “So, to some extent, I think you can be guaranteed to expect disappointment no matter what comes out of this,” he added.