A spokesperson for NASA has issued a public statement following President Donald Trump’s announcement that he will direct his administration to release government files related to aliens and associated phenomena.
On Truth Social, Trump said he would instruct Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to start locating and making public government files pertaining to unidentified flying objects and potential extraterrestrial life.
“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), and any and all other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters,” Trump wrote on Thursday.
Why It Matters
A 2021 survey by the Pew Research Center found that 65 percent of Americans believed intelligent life may exist on other planets.
What To Know
“We continue to embrace President Trump’s open science commitment as an agency,” NASA Press Secretary Bethany Stevens posted on social media platform X on Friday in response to Trump’s announcement.
“We have fostered open science since our inception so that the public can build upon our innovations. We continue to make all NASA data publicly available, and welcome public participation using our data.”
Stevens added: “As [NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman] has said, there are certainly things he’s come across in the job that he can’t explain… but they relate more to unnecessarily costly programs than they do to extraterrestrial life!”
Interest in extraterrestrials grew sharply after former President Barack Obama addressed the topic during an interview with political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen.
In a rapid-fire segment of an interview with podcast host Cohen, Obama had answered “They’re real” to a question about aliens, then immediately added that he had not seen them and rejected the idea they were stored at Area 51.
After his comments quickly went viral, Obama sought to clarify his remarks, writing on social media: “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!”
What People Are Saying
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also reposted Trump’s announcement, adding an alien emoji followed by a saluting emoji.
Representative Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican wrote on X, Thursday: “Tonight, President Trump is directing full disclosure of UAP and UFO files. In October, I wrote to DoD, CIA, NSA, and DNI demanding exactly that. The truth belongs to the American people.”
Trump’s announcement also spawned a wave of jokes and memes on social media.
What Happens Next
As Newsweek noted previously, the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office maintains it has uncovered no verifiable evidence of extraterrestrial activity.