In Context: What Obama said about aliens that sparked Trump to order file release

President Donald Trump said Thursday he will direct multiple U.S. government agencies to declassify files related to aliens and UFOs.  

The move came five days after former President Barack Obama sparked interest in the topic by saying aliens are real.

Obama made the comments in a Feb. 14 interview with political commentator and podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen, who asked Obama a lightning round of questions, including whether aliens are real. Obama’s answer in the affirmative quickly went viral on social media. 

Aboard  Air Force One Feb. 19, Fox News senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked Trump: "So aliens are real?"

"Well, I don’t know if they’re real or not," Trump said. "I can tell you (Obama) gave classified information. He’s not supposed to be doing that. He made a big mistake. He took it out of classified information."

Doocy then said Trump, as president, can declassify anything he wants to. 

"I may get him out of trouble by declassifying it," Trump responded, referring to Obama.

Hours later, Trump said on Truth Social he would do just that.

"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)," Trump’s Feb. 19 post read. 

Here are Obama’s comments during Cohen’s speed-round interview, when the former president answered several questions in a short period of time.

Cohen: "So I want to do a little bit of a lightning round here, because it’s not often I’ll get access to the president of the United States. So a couple questions here. Are aliens real?"

Obama: "They’re real, but I haven’t seen them, and they’re not being kept in, what is it?"

Cohen: "Area 51?"

Obama: "Area 51. There’s no underground facility, unless there’s this enormous conspiracy, and they hid it from the president of the United States."

Declassified documents released in 2013 during Obama’s presidency acknowledged the existence of Area 51, saying that the secret government space was used as an aerial testing ground for U.S. government projects.

Obama clarified his podcast remarks on social media, saying, "I was trying to stick with the spirit of the speed round, but since it’s gotten attention let me clarify. Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there. But the distances between solar systems are so great that the chances we’ve been visited by aliens is low, and I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!"

While not discovered, there’s a possibility that there could be life on other planets; NASA researchers said in August 2025 that they found a long-lasting source of chemical energy in the ancient past of planet Ceres that could have made it possible for microorganisms to survive. NASA noted that this doesn’t mean that Ceres had life, but that there was likely "food" available should life have ever arisen on Ceres. 

In 2024 the Pentagon’s UFO office, called the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, said it found "no evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity, or technologies."