Main points
- Obama has said that aliens are “real,” but he has seen no evidence of contact during his presidency.
- Trump has promised to declassify government materials on UFOs, although he himself has no confirmation of the authenticity of the aliens.
- 1 What exactly did Obama say about UFOs?
- 2 What is the history of US contacts with aliens in recent years?
- 3 “Area 51” – what is known about it?
- 1 What exactly did Obama say about UFOs?
- 2 What is the history of US contacts with aliens in recent years?
- 3 “Area 51” – what is known about it?
In February 2026, the topic of aliens in the United States became relevant again. However, nothing new happened. The reason was the words of former President Barack Obama and Donald Trump's public reaction to them with promises to declassify government materials on UFOs (UAP).
This story has exposed an old problem in the American discussion of aliens. In popular parlance, “aliens” often replaces the concept of UAP – “unidentified anomalous phenomena”, which for government agencies primarily means objects or events that are not identified due to lack of data, and are not confirmed contact with another civilization.
Parallel to the political statements, there is a line of official US reports where no evidence of extraterrestrial origin is publicly available. Channel 24 has investigated the topic and reports on the latest developments in the cult American topic of aliens.
What exactly did Obama say about UFOs?
The impetus for the topic this year was Obama's conversation with host Brian Tyler Cohen in a quick question format.
When asked about the reality of aliens, Obama responded with a phrase that made headlines:
They are real, but I haven't seen them.
Obama also mentioned “Area 51,” where, according to an old legend, aliens are kept. But they're not there.
After a wave of interpretations, Obama posted a clarification on Instagram, where he formulated the position as a denial of any evidence of contact during his presidency:
I have seen no evidence of alien contact during my tenure. Indeed!
Donald Trump, of course, was quick to use the media outcry as a pretext for political statements. He accused Obama of leaking “classified information” without evidence.
At the same time, Trump announced that he would instruct federal agencies to begin publishing government materials on aliens and UFOs, calling the topic “very interesting and important,” and separately emphasizing that he himself had no confirmation of the authenticity of the aliens.
Trump criticized Obama for his words about UFOs: watch the video
Interestingly! In 2020, the US Department of Defense authorized the publication of three Navy videos of alleged UFO sightings that had previously circulated in the media. The logic of the release in public explanations is to dispel speculation about the authenticity of the materials and confirm that the videos are real, but the objects remain “unidentified.”
The Pentagon and UFO sightings: watch the video
What is the history of US contacts with aliens in recent years?
The topic of UFOs and aliens has become more active in the US in recent years, especially after the publication of the 2020 video. Official US documents use the term UAP (Unidentified Aerial/Anomalous Phenomena) to separate observed incidents from assumptions about their origin.
US intelligence describes the stories of alleged alien ship sightings as a lack of data and inconsistent reporting , which leaves most cases unexplained. It notes that a standardized reporting mechanism for the Navy emerged in 2019, with the Air Force joining later.
Public reports in recent years say that there are many reports of sightings but no confirmation of an extraterrestrial nature.
- ODNI (2021) : The preliminary assessment notes that data are largely insufficient to draw conclusions about the nature of the phenomena; describes the need for better collection and analysis, as well as the fact that a standardized reporting mechanism has been in place since 2019.
- AARO/Pentagon (Historical Review, 2024) : The report states that reviews of government materials since the end of World War II have found no evidence of extraterrestrial technology , and a significant proportion of cases are attributed to mistaken identification of ordinary objects and phenomena.
- AARO (report to Congress, June 2024). AP cites figures of 485 new reports per year and 118 cases identified as “conventional objects” (bullets/probes, birds, UAVs).
Interestingly, the February 2026 remark is not the first time Obama has publicly addressed the topic. In a 2021 interview, he described the problem precisely as the presence of unexplained sightings, phrasing it this way: “There are pictures and recordings of objects in the sky that we don't know exactly what they are.”
“Area 51” (Area 51) – what is known about it?
“Area 51,” which Barack Obama mentioned, is a facility in Nevada near Groom Lake that has been linked to secret programs and aliens for decades. It's actually an air base.
In 2013, the CIA released archival materials describing Area 51 as a testing ground for reconnaissance programs, including the U-2 and OXCART/A-12. The very mention and context – as an aviation training ground – are part of the declassified documents.
Why did it become the center of the “alien” mythology? The combination of secrecy, limited access, and a history of testing high-altitude aircraft during the Cold War created the ground for alternative versions. Some CIA documents directly link the surge in UFO sightings to the appearance of flights at altitudes that were atypical for civil aviation at the time.
Another high-profile historical event is the Roswell Incident . In July 1947, near the city of Roswell (New Mexico), military personnel from the Roswell Army Air Field collected debris found on a ranch. The event became historic precisely because of a public communication error – at first, the military distributed a message that was interpreted as a “flying saucer” finding, and then quickly replaced it with an explanation about a weather probe.
This change of version – recorded in the reviewed reference sources – has long perpetuated the suspicion that the state is hiding something, regardless of the facts.
American press about the events in Roswell / Photo Wikimedia
In 1994, following a congressional request and a GAO audit of the documents, the U.S. Air Force published the Report of Air Force Research Regarding the “Roswell Incident.” The Air Force concluded that the debris was best explained by a then-secret high-altitude balloon program (Project Mogul) with elements such as radar reflectors, rather than an “extraterrestrial craft.”
A separate layer of legends – stories about “bodies” – was analyzed by the Air Force in the later summary material The Roswell Report. It claims that the evidence of “non-human bodies” is the result of mixing up different events (training, programs and accidents) in time and the mistaken identification of anthropomorphic test dummies used in high-altitude tests with alleged aliens.
In general, the story of Obama's remark and Trump's reaction shows that the topic of aliens is not popular in the United States, despite everything that is happening in the world. And it may even become another reason for the actions of the current US president. However, in parallel, there is a whole layer of work by the Pentagon, which really concerns aliens. And humanity will definitely learn something interesting thanks to Donald Trump's decision to make new information public.