President Donald Trump has alternated between skepticism and curiosity about unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and aliens, discussing pilots’ sightings, government secrecy, and his own access to information during interviews and appearances.
Public interest in unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs) surged after Congress and the Pentagon released reports and held hearings, making presidential comments—past and present—central to understanding what the government might know and disclose.
A 2021 survey by Pew Research Center found that almost two-thirds (65 percent) of Americans believe that intelligent life could exist on other planets.
Trump’s evolving remarks offer a window into how a former and current president talks about alleged sightings.
In June 2019, Trump said he had been briefed on Navy UFO reports and expressed doubt, stating to ABC News: “I did have one very brief meeting on it,” adding that “people are saying they’re seeing UFOs. Do I believe it? Not particularly.”
Also in 2019, he told Tucker Carlson he wasn’t convinced in the existence of UFOs. “Well, I don’t want to really get into it too much. But personally, I tend to doubt it,” Trump said. “I’m not a believer, but you know, I guess anything is possible.”
In June 2020, when his son Donald Trump Jr. asked him about revealing “what’s really going on with Roswell,” Trump answered, per The Hill: “I won’t talk to you about what I know about it, but it’s very interesting.”
Major Jesse Marcel, pictured below in 1947 with crash debris, was the first military officer to investigate the Roswell Incident, one of the most famous examples of the supposed recovery of crashed extraterrestrial technology and biological entities.
On Logan Paul’s Impaulsive podcast in June 2024, Trump said he had met with pilots who described seeing “things you wouldn’t believe,” reiterating he was not a believer himself.
“But I have met with people, serious people, that say there are some really strange things flying around out there,” he said.
Pressed on whether he had access to files about aliens and UAPs, Trump added: “I have access…and I speak to people about it, I’ve had actually meetings on it,” also saying he had heard of aircraft “round in form, going like four times faster than my super jet fighter plane.”
Appearing on Joe Rogan’s podcast in 2024 Trump also expressed skepticism, saying that he’d never been a believer.
On Greg Gutfeld’s Fox News show in September 2024, Trump said the question he may get more than any other is about aliens in Area 51, and repeated that pilots told him of a “round object going faster than my F-22.”