US President Donald Trump says the Pentagon is preparing to release some "very interesting" UFO files uncovered by his administration, generating a mix of buzz and scepticism as he hints at new revelations around questions of alien life.
Trump started stoking interest in February, directing federal agencies to release their records related to extraterrestrial life and UFOs. Since then, he has built suspense with tantalising updates, teasing an imminent release of documents never before shared by the US government.
"We're going to be releasing a lot of things that we haven't," Trump said on Wednesday at a White House event celebrating NASA astronauts.
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"I think some of it's going to be very interesting to people."
Trump has relished in portraying himself as the president who spills the secrets. In the first week returning to office, he ordered the release of records related to the assassinations of President John F Kennedy, Senator Robert F Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. The disclosures revealed little beyond what was already known.
In the buildup to that release, Trump said "the American people deserve transparency and truth".
Now, as he turns to the sky, the president has struck a similar tone, suggesting answers to decades-old questions may be on the way.
His February directive on social media called for transparency around "alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs)".
"The first releases will begin very, very soon," he told supporters in April at a Turning Point USA event in Phoenix.
"So you can go out and see if that phenomena is correct. You'll figure it out."
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Expert cautions against raising expectations
Even before Trump's directive, the Pentagon was years into a process to declassify and release government documents related to UFOs, now often referred to as unexplained anomalous phenomena, or UAP.
Citing concerns over national security, Congress created an office in 2022 to investigate UAP and declassify as much material as possible. The office's 2024 debut report revealed hundreds of new UAP incidents but found no evidence that the US government had ever confirmed a sighting of alien technology. A second report covering more recent sightings is expected to come soon.
That agency, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, is now working with the White House to release "never-before-seen UAP information", according to a Pentagon statement.
The office's previous director, however, said Trump's promises were bluster, a "shiny object" to distract Americans from the war with Iran. Sean Kirkpatrick, a physicist and former career intelligence officer who led the office until 2023, said he has seen the government's records and believes there are no bombshell revelations to be found.
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"Readers should not get their hopes up that there's going to be some document with photos, interviewing the aliens when they came down," he said. "Because that just doesn't exist."
Videos purporting to show alien technology tend to have mundane explanations, he said. Modern infrared cameras used by the US military often capture jet engines and other hot objects in a long thermal bloom, which, Kirkpatrick said, explains viral videos of speedy, pill-shaped objects.
Pentagon not forthcoming on UAP reports, GOP-led panel says
On Capitol Hill, those types of videos have caught the attention of a small group of Trump-aligned Republicans who insist the Pentagon is holding back secrets.
The Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets has been conducting its own investigation into reports of mysterious aircraft near US military installations, which the panel says pose a threat to national security and the armed forces.
Last autumn, the task force heard testimony from current and former service members who described UAP encounters. In one case, a senior Navy officer said he was off the coast of California in 2023 when he saw a glowing "Tic Tac" shaped object emerge from the ocean and link up with three similar objects. They sped away in an instant, he said.
Trump's interest in the subject has energized congressional Republicans, including Florida Representative Anna Paulina Luna, an Air Force veteran who co-chairs the task force. Luna has criticised what she calls "more than adequate" transparency from the Pentagon.
In a March letter to Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, Luna demanded dozens of UAP videos identified by whistleblowers and labelled with names such as "Spherical UAP in clouds". Her deadline for Hegseth came and went, and no videos were produced.
Trump's entry to the UFO fray drew applause from Luna, who last year told podcaster Joe Rogan that she has seen evidence of "interdimensional beings." The Pentagon "can't hide from our docs request anymore!" Luna said on social media after Trump's directive.
