Trump keeps us up in the air with his hints of what’s coming in a new
batch of UFO files
[May 04, 2026]
By COLLIN BINKLEY
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says the Pentagon is preparing
to release some “very interesting” UFO files uncovered by his
administration, generating a mix of buzz and skepticism as he hints at
new revelations around questions of alien life.
Trump started stoking interest in the extraterrestrial in February,
directing federal agencies to release their records related to
extraterrestrial life and UFOs. Since then, he has built suspense with
tantalizing updates, teasing an imminent release of documents never
before shared by the U.S. government.
“We’re going to be releasing a lot of things that we haven't,” Trump
said Wednesday at a White House event celebrating NASA astronauts. “I
think some of it’s going to be very interesting to people.”
Trump has relished in portraying himself as the president who spills the
secrets. In the first week returning to office, he ordered the release
of records related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy,
Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. The disclosures
revealed little beyond what was already known.
In the buildup to that release, Trump said “the American people deserve
transparency and truth.” Now, as he turns to the sky, the president has
struck a similar tone, suggesting answers to decades-old questions may
be on the way. His February directive on social media called for
transparency around "alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified
aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs).”
“The first releases will begin very, very soon,” he told supporters in
April at a Turning Point USA event in Phoenix. “So you can go out and
see if that phenomena is correct. You’ll figure it out.”
An expert cautions against raising expectations
Even before Trump's directive, the Pentagon was years into a process to
declassify and release government documents related to UFOs, now often
referred to as unexplained anomalous phenomena, or UAP.
Citing concerns over national security, Congress created an office in
2022 to investigate UAP and declassify as much material as possible. The
office's 2024 debut report revealed hundreds of new UAP incidents but
found no evidence that the U.S. government had ever confirmed a sighting
of alien technology. A second report covering more recent sightings is
expected to come soon.
That agency, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, is now working
with the White House to release “never-before-seen UAP information,”
according to a Pentagon statement.
The office's previous director, however, said Trump's promises were
bluster, a “shiny object” to distract Americans from the war with Iran.
Sean Kirkpatrick, a physicist and former career intelligence officer who
led the office until 2023, said he has seen the government's records and
believes there are no bombshell revelations to be found.
“Readers should not get their hopes up that there’s going to be some
document with photos, interviewing the aliens when they came down,” he
said. “Because that just doesn’t exist.”
Videos purporting to show alien technology tend to have mundane
explanations, he said. Modern infrared cameras used by the U.S. military
often capture jet engines and other hot objects in a long thermal bloom,
which, Kirkpatrick said, explains viral videos of speedy, pill-shaped
objects.
Pentagon not forthcoming on UAP reports, GOP-led panel says
On Capitol Hill, those types of videos have caught the attention of a
small group of Trump-aligned Republicans who insist the Pentagon is
holding back secrets.
The Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets has been
conducting its own investigation into reports of mysterious aircraft
near U.S. military installations, which the panel says pose a threat to
national security and the armed forces.
Last fall, the task force heard testimony from 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 link up with
three similar objects. They sped away in an instant, he said.
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This photo is from the US Air Force's "The Roswell Report," released
June 24, 1997, which discusses the alleged UFO incident in Roswell,
N.M., in 1947. (U..S Air Force via AP, File)
Trump's interest in the subject has energized congressional
Republicans, including Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, an Air Force
veteran who co-chairs the task force. Luna has criticized what she
calls “less than adequate” transparency from the Pentagon.
In a March letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Luna demanded
dozens of UAP videos identified by whistleblowers and labeled with
names such as “Spherical UAP in clouds.” Her deadline for Hegseth
came and went, and no videos were produced.
Trump's entry to the UFO fray drew applause from Luna, who last year
told podcaster Joe Rogan that she has seen evidence of
“interdimensional beings.” The Pentagon “can’t hide from our docs
request anymore!” Luna said on social media after Trump's directive.
Vance professes to be ‘obsessed’ with UFO files
Trump appears skeptical about the existence of extraterrestrial
life. Addressing the Turning Point USA crowd in Phoenix, he said, “I
figured this was a good crowd because I know you people, you’re
really into that. I don’t know if I am.”
Why he made the revelation at that event, held at a megachurch, is
unclear. A day earlier, Trump had spoken in Las Vegas, not far from
Area 51, a top-secret Cold War test site that has fueled UFO
conspiracy theories.
Vice President JD Vance has described himself as “obsessed” with UFO
files. In March, he said he has been trying to find time to
investigate Area 51 since he took office.
“I’ve still got three more years as vice president,” Vance told
conservative podcaster Benny Johnson. “I will get to the bottom of
the UFO files.” Invoking his Christian faith, Vance said he believes
sightings reported to be aliens are actually the work of spiritual
demons.
Even before Trump tackled the topic, alien buzz was already in the
air.
It's back in Hollywood with an upcoming Steven Spielberg movie,
“Disclosure Day.” Former President Barack Obama made a splash in
February when he declared on a podcast that aliens are real. He
later clarified that he had seen no evidence but that “the odds are
good there’s life out there.”
Trump is hardly the first president drawn to UFO mysteries.
President Bill Clinton has said he once ordered a review of the
Roswell Incident — something had crashed in 1947 at a New Mexico
ranch and officials later said the debris was the remnants of a
high-altitude weather balloon — around its 50th anniversary in 1997.
Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan claimed to have seen UFOs
before their time in the White House.
The U.S. government has been investigating UFO reports since the
1940s, in part to determine if they represent advanced technology
from competing nations or “evidence of off-world technology,”
according to the Defense Department's 2024 report.
In online communities devoted to UFOs, some see Trump's promise as a
step in the right direction; others believe it will come to nothing.
For people who follow the topic closely, promises of big revelations
have never lived up to the hype, said Greg Eghigian, a Pennsylvania
State University professor who wrote a book on the history of UFO
sightings.
“There is almost no satisfaction that is possible for many of the
really die-hard folks,” he said. “So in a sense, I think
disappointment can almost be guaranteed to be expected no matter
what comes out of this.”
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