Trump Looking To Release 'Alien And Extraterrestrial Life' Files

WASHINGTON, Feb 20 (Bernama-dpa) -- United States (US) President Donald Trump on Thursday said he wants to release government files related to matters including "alien and extraterrestrial life," reported German Press Agency (dpa).

Trump said he would be directing Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth "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 other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters."

The US president said that the decision was based "on the tremendous interest shown" in a post on his Truth Social platform.

The scope of the proposed release and when the information would be made available to the public initially remained unclear.

A few days ago, former US president Barack Obama said in response to a quick-fire question on a podcast that aliens were "real, but I haven't seen them."

He later clarified in a post on Instagram: "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 are low, and I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!"

Trump on Thursday alleged that his predecessor "gave classified information," without specifying what kind of information this was. "He's not supposed to be doing that," Trump said.

--BERNAMA-dpa