President Donald Trump said Thursday that he will direct federal agencies to start identifying and releasing government records related to unidentified aerial phenomena and claims of extraterrestrial life, citing strong public interest and commenting that he has seen no proof either way.
On Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026, President Donald Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform that he would direct federal agencies to begin identifying and releasing government files related to “alien and extraterrestrial life,” unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) and unidentified flying objects (UFOs), citing what he called “tremendous interest” in the topic.
Trump’s announcement followed remarks he made earlier that day aboard Air Force One, where he told reporters he did not know whether aliens are “real.” In the same exchange, he accused former President Barack Obama of having disclosed “classified information,” though Trump did not specify what information he believed was classified.
The dispute was sparked by a recent podcast appearance in which Obama said aliens are “real,” while adding he had not seen them and had no evidence of an underground facility concealing them from the president. Obama later clarified in a social media post that he was speaking in probabilistic terms—saying the universe is so vast that “the odds are good there’s life out there,” but that he saw no evidence during his presidency that extraterrestrials had made contact with Earth.
Trump also said he might declassify relevant files to “get [Obama] out of trouble,” framing the release as a response to renewed public attention.
Separately, Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, said on a New York Post podcast that Trump had been coy when family members asked him about aliens and suggested he may have prepared a speech on the subject. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters the next day that a prepared speech on extraterrestrial life would be “news to me.”
Public interest in UFOs has risen in recent years alongside greater government disclosure. The Defense Department’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) was established in July 2022 to centralize reporting and analysis of UAP incidents.
In a separate, unclassified Pentagon report released in 2024 covering hundreds of UAP reports, AARO said it had not found evidence that any reported cases involved extraterrestrial beings, activity or technology. The office said many reports are ultimately resolved as ordinary objects such as balloons, birds and drones, while others remain unresolved due to limited data.
