Barack Obama said the first question he wanted answered when he became president was ‘Where are the aliens?’ as the former Commander in Chief confirmed they are ‘real’
Reanna Smith US News Reporter
04:37 ET, 15 Feb 2026
Obama said aliens are ‘real’ (Image: @Brian Tyler Cohen/Barack Obama/YouTube)
Are we alone? That question has haunted humankind ever since we discovered the enormity of the universe, and now, former president Barack Obama has answered it.
Questioned about the existence of aliens while appearing on the No Lie podcast with Brian Tyler Cohen, Obama, after serving two terms as president of the United States, gave a stunning answer. “They’re real,” he said.
“But I haven’t seen them,” he added. The former president also addressed the longtime conspiracy theory that the US government is keeping aliens and UFOs in Area 51, a highly classified United States Air Force facility in the Nevada Desert.
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“They’re not being kept in Area 51,” he said. “There’s no underground facility — unless there’s this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the President of the United States.”
“What was the first question you wanted answered when you became president?” Cohen asked. “Where are the aliens?” Obama responded with a laugh.
Conspiracy theorists have long believed that Area 51 is being used to house aliens and UFOs(Image: Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Area 51 has long been a magnet for conspiracy theorists. What goes on inside the Air Force facility, created during the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union, is highly secret, with members of the public kept away by warning signs, electronic surveillance and armed security guards.
First opened in 1955, its existence wasn’t even acknowledged by the CIA until August 2013, when it was named in declassified CIA documents released following a Freedom of Information Act request. Obama became the first ever US president to mention Area 51 publicly, just months after the CIA’s disclosure.
“Now, when you first become president, one of the questions that people ask you is, what’s really going on in Area 51?” Obama told the crowd at the Kennedy Center Honors that year. “When I wanted to know, I’d call Shirley MacLaine. … I think I just became the first president to ever publicly mention Area 51. How’s that, Shirley?” he added.
Obama was the first president to mention Area 51 by name (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
MacLaine has been vocal about her belief in aliens. The Academy award-winning actress has claimed to have seen UFOs on numerous occasions since age 18.
The existence of aliens wasn’t the only conspiracy theory Cohen quizzed Obama about. Rounding out the interview, he asked: “All right, last question here, is Tupac alive?”
Tupac Shakur was murdered in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas in 1996. Ever since, conspiracy theorists have claimed that the rapper faked his own death and is still alive as the answer to who killed him remained a mystery for decades.
“He’s alive on my playlist,” Obama responded. In 2023, Duane “Keefe D” Davis was charged with Tupac’s murder.
Clark County Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo claimed that Davis was the “on-ground, on-site commander” and “ordered the death” of one of the biggest names in hip hop at the time. Davis had publicly discussed his presence at the drive-by shooting during media interviews and in his memoir Compton Street Legend but has pleaded not guilty and maintains his innocence.