Trump directs release of government files ‘related to alien and extraterrestrial life’

President Donald Trump is directing the release of government files “related to alien and extraterrestrial life” and other similar topics.

Trump announced Thursday night on Truth Social that he’s directing top officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, to begin 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 said the move is “based on the tremendous interest shown” in the topic. The Independent has contacted the White House for more information.

Just hours before his announcement, Trump accused former President Barack Obama of making a “big mistake” and sharing “classified information” after he suggested aliens are real on Brian Tyler Cohen’s podcast at the weekend.

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"They're real, but I haven't seen them, and they're not being kept in ... Area 51. There's no underground facility unless there's this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president of the United States," Obama told the podcaster.

Obama later clarified his answer on Instagram, telling his followers he saw “no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us.”

“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,” he wrote.

The Independent has contacted the Obama Foundation for comment.

Officials were quick to react to Trump’s announcement.

Hegseth re-shared Trump’s statement on X, accompanied by an alien emoji and a salute emoji. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote: “OUT OF THIS WORLD NEWS from President Trump.”

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Senator John Fetterman, a Democrat, discussed the move with Fox News host Jesse Watters on Thursday night.

"If he’s going to release all of the X-Files, I think that could be a bipartisan thing," Fetterman said, referring to the 1990s TV series, which follows two government agents as they investigate aliens and other unexplained phenomena.

Representative Nancy Mace, a Republican from South Carolina, said she had previously demanded the Defense Department and other agencies release similar information.

“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,” she wrote on X.

Others reacted with skepticism, including Republican Representative Thomas Massie, who suggested Trump’s announcement could be a “distraction” from the release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein.

“They’ve deployed the ultimate weapon of mass distraction, but the Epstein files aren’t going away… even for aliens,” he posted on X.

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Adam Kinzinger, a former Republican congressman, also wrote: “What about the 2 million unreleased Epstein files tho.”

This announcement comes a day after Trump’s daughter-in-law suggested the president has prepared a speech related to extraterrestrial life.

“I have just heard kind of around that he’s actually said, my father-in-law has actually said it, that there is some speech that he has, that I guess at the right time...I don’t know what the right time is...that he is going to break out and talk about, and it has to do with maybe some sort of extraterrestrial life, so to speak,” Lara Trump told the New York Post’s Pod Force One podcast.