Will Trump Trigger UFO Disclosure?
The UFO community is on fire, after former president Obama’s comments about alien life led president Trump to say Obama revealed classified information, and then later post that he was directing the Pentagon to release all UFO-related files. What does this mean? What might happen next? Can Trump even legally do this? We’re diving in.
Rumors of Trump UFO Speech
- 1/9: Mark Christopher Lee, UFO researcher and filmmaker: “I was contacted last night by an insider from Washington DC, from the Trump administration who told me… that President Trump… will give [a speech] about UFO disclosure this year. It was originally scheduled for September at the United Nations assembly. He has been authorized apparently by the world’s leaders to give this speech, but he’s a bit wary that China and Russia may jump the gun on him.”
- 1/28: Lee: “My source who I trust implicitly and has been vetted… told me that President Trump has written his UFO disclosure speech with his advisers and is set to announce to the world on July the 8th, the anniversary of the Roswell crash, that we are not alone.”
- 2/4: Lara Trump, President Trump’s daughter-in-law: “There is some speech that he has, that I guess at the right time, I don’t know when the right time is, he’s going to break out and talk about and it has to do with maybe some sort of extraterrestrial life.”
- 2/10: Rick Wilson, co-founder of the Lincoln Project: “Right before we came on the air somebody texted me - apparently Trump is preparing to come out with a major press conference about UFOs.”
- 2/18: White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt: “Well, a speech on aliens would be news to me. That sounds very exciting though. I’ll have to check in with our speechwriting team. That would be of great interest to me… and apparently former President Obama too.”
- 2/18: Joe Murgia, UFO researcher: “Trump can start the Disclosure process right now if he just waives the NDAs of astrophysicist, Dr. Eric Davis. Davis told me that he could share all that he's learned about UFOs and non-human intelligence with the general public...IF Trump does that.”
- Davis, in Moment of Contact: “If the President of the US issued an executive order that absolves me of all my TS/SCI NDAs… and I get subpoenaed by Congress… to reveal everything I know… about the legacy UAP crash retrieval and reverse engineering and NHI programs… I would do so.”
Obama Says Aliens are Real
- 2/14: Former President Barack Obama: “[Aliens] are 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.”
- 2/15: Obama: “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!”
Trump Says Obama Revealed Classified Info
- 2/19, noon: White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked Trump: “Barack Obama said that aliens are real. Have you seen any evidence of non-human visitors to Earth?”
- Trump: “Well he gave classified information. He's not supposed to be doing that."
- Doocy: “So aliens are real?”
- Trump: “I don’t know if they’re real or not,” Trump responded. “I can tell you he gave classified information. He’s not supposed to be doing that. He made a big mistake. He took it out of classified information. I don't have an opinion on it. I never talk about it. A lot of people do. A lot of people believe it… I may get him out of trouble by declassifying it."
- 2/19, 3:45: Fox News: “We followed up with the White House. We wanted to know what part of Barack Obama’s comments did the President feel were classified. Was it the part that he says he believes in aliens, or the part that they were not in Area 51? They were also asked if the DOJ was going to look into these comments perhaps because they were classified. The White House told us, ‘There’s nothing to add to the President’s comments tonight.’”
- 2/19, 4:30: Brian Tyler Cohen, the podcaster who asked Obama about aliens: “What have I done”
Trump Says He’ll Release UFO Files
- 2/19, 5:15pm: Trump: “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.”
Congressional Reactions
- Rep. Anna Paulina Luna: “Looks like we are about to have a ton of hearings on this! …Now the DOW can’t hide from our docs request anymore!”
- Rep Eric Burlison: “The most likely thing that people can expect to happen is to learn that we are truly aware that there are objects that are not from here. We have no idea what they are… I’ve been trying to track these things down for two and a half years. Everywhere I go, I came up with a dead end. So just be prepared for the reality to be that we know almost nothing about this, but we know that there’s something that we don’t know.”
- Rep Jared Moskowitz: “I think you’ll see, maybe this week, a bunch of us in Congress do a press conference on a bipartisan basis to try to talk about more disclosure, more information, to take the president’s words and turn that into action. Let’s get some of these documents out… and get them released to the American people.”
- Rep Thomas Massie: “They’ve deployed the ultimate weapon of mass distraction, but the Epstein files aren’t going away… even for aliens.”
- Reddit: “Life imitates art.” - linked to:
- Seth Meyers: “I honestly think we’re just one Epstein story away from Trump announcing that UFOs are real.”
- Reddit: “Life imitates art.” - linked to:
Community Reactions
- UFO Journalist George Knapp: “Well, let's see where this leads. Even with inevitable redactions, or the withholding of documents by intelligence agencies, and non-compliance by contractors, a presidential directive to release UFO files is a big deal.”
- Post Disclosure World: “Trump saying what he did tonight on Truth Social will not go away. Imagine people like DNI Tulsi Gabbard or CIA Director John Ratcliffe being asked questions about UFOs now that Trump publicly said he wants transparency. Trump's post should light a fire under journalists and make anyone asked about the topic much more cautious about lying.”
- Dr Beatriz Villarroel: “Good news: A serious push toward transparency on the UFO and NHI question is underway. At the same time, we should expect increased activity from disinformation actors and efforts aimed at slowing or undermining that progress. The next few months may well feel like a circus.”
Insider Reactions
- Former Director of the UAP Task Force, Jay Stratton: “President Trump's announcement is a landmark occasion for us all. After years of fighting for disclosure behind the scenes, I couldn't be prouder to be a part of this turning point in human history. Congratulations and thank you to Dan Farah for making the truly groundbreaking film, The Age of Disclosure. Less than three months after the film's release, two U.S. Presidents acknowledge non-human intelligent life exists and President Trump has issued an historic disclosure order.”
- Former Director of AATIP, Lue Elizondo: “This is the culmination of many years of effort—years in which families, careers, and personal safety were often placed at risk simply to have this conversation. I am deeply grateful to witness this day… As we move forward toward greater disclosure and transparency, my hope is that this moment brings people together.”
- Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Chris Mellon: “To the extent they follow through, this is an enormously positive development… That said, virtually all relevant documents are classified, and identifying and declassifying them will be a lengthy, complex process. My concern is that an executive branch effort, if snarled in turf fights and classification nuances, could end up being misleadingly partial or incomplete, as we've seen recently with other unrelated disclosure efforts.”
Can Trump Even Do This?
- Debrief: “The gap between the headline-grabbing word ‘release’ and the legal action behind ‘declassify’ is the pivot point in the story, because without an explicit declassification order, any disclosure is likely to arrive slowly, selectively, and heavily shaped by national security concerns.”
- Debrief: “In the United States, the modern classification system is built on presidential executive orders, which means a sitting president has ultimate authority to classify or declassify anything they want at any time… [The Supreme Court] has emphasized just how expansive presidential authority can be… with one major exception: certain nuclear-related secrets governed by separate law.”
- Debrief: “The nuclear secrets exception is real and often misunderstood… Under the Atomic Energy Act, some nuclear information is treated as ‘Restricted Data,’ which follows its own declassification process… However, for the UAP issue, President Trump is invoking records held by the Department of Defense, the intelligence community, or other executive-branch agencies. In this case, the presidential authority is sweeping.”
- Debrief: “If a President communicates that information is declassified, that decision is immediate and decisive. So if President Trump wanted to remove classification as a barrier, he could unilaterally do it in plain language… He could say… ‘Any government records about alien craft retrievals, reverse engineering, UAP sensor data, and related programs are hereby declassified to the maximum extent permitted by law.’ Such a statement would be an unmistakable trigger—even if it came via social media rather than a formal memo.”
References
- Lee: “A DC insider told me Trump will give a speech about UFO disclosure this year.”
- Lee: “Trump is set to announce on July 8 that we are not alone.”
- Lara Trump: "I've heard he has a speech about extraterrestrial life.”
- Wilson: “Apparently Trump is preparing a major press conference about UFOs.”
- Obama: My Conversation with Brian Tyler Cohen
- Obama: “I saw no evidence that extraterrestrials have made contact with us.”
- Murgia: “Trump can start disclosure now by waiving the NDAs of Eric Davis.”
- Leavitt: “A speech on aliens would be news to me.”
- The Hill: Trump accuses Obama of revealing classified information on aliens
- Doocy: “Trump just told me Obama gave classified information.”
- Fox: Video of Peter Doocy asking Trump about Obama’s alien claims.
- Fox: “We asked the White House what part of Obama’s comments were classified.”
- Murgia: “I think the part that was classified is that Area 51 doesn't have an underground facility.”
- Cohen: “What have I done”
- BBC: Trump directs US government to prepare release of files on aliens and UFOs
- Trump: “I am directing the DOW to begin releasing files related to alien life.”
- Luna: “We’re about to have a ton of hearings on this.”
- Luna: “Now the DOW can’t hide from our docs request anymore!”
- Post Disclosure World: “Trump’s post should light a fire under journalists.”
- Massie: “They’ve deployed the ultimate weapon of mass distraction.”
- Knapp: “A presidential directive to release UFO files is a big deal.”
- Reddit: “Life imitates art.”
- Meyers: “We’re one Epstein story away from Trump announcing that UFOs are real.”
- Villarroel: “Good news, though the next few months may feel like a circus.”
- Stratton: "Trump's announcement is a landmark occasion for us all.”
- Elizondo: “This is the culmination of many years of effort.”
- Burlison: “Be prepared to learn that we have no idea what they are.”
- Mellon: “This is an enormously positive development in a lengthy, complex process.”
- DefenseScoop: Transparency proponents meet Trump’s UAP disclosure tease with hope — and caution
- Debrief: Trump Orders Release of Alien and UFO Files, But There’s a Catch: Nothing Is Declassified, Yet
- Moskowitz: “I think you’ll see Congress try to turn the president’s words into action.”
Episode 83, posted on
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