Overview
- Trump announced the directive on Truth Social, with the White House echoing it, instructing federal departments to identify records on extraterrestrial life, UAP and UFOs.
- The message referenced a “Secretary of War,” an outdated title for the Secretary of Defense, signaling an intent to task defense and intelligence agencies.
- No deadline, scope or volume of documents has been specified by the administration.
- The order followed Barack Obama’s viral podcast comments that “aliens are real,” after which Trump accused him of discussing sensitive information.
- Democratic activists and some lawmakers, including Rep. Thomas Massie, charged that the move is a distraction from the Jeffrey Epstein files, as others pointed to prior UAP hearings and a 2024 Pentagon report that found no evidence of extraterrestrial technology.