Trump keeps everyone up in the air with hints of what’s coming in new batch of UFO files

US President Donald Trump says the Pentagon is preparing to release a number of “very interesting” UFO files discovered by his administration, generating a mix of buzz and skepticism as he hints at new revelations on questions about extraterrestrial life.

“We’re going to release a lot of things that we haven’t released yet,” Trump said Wednesday at a White House event honoring NASA astronauts.

“I think some of it will be really interesting for people.”

Trump has taken pleasure in portraying himself as the president who gives away the secrets. In his first week back in office, he ordered the release of documents related to the assassinations of President John F Kennedy, Senator Robert F Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. The revelations revealed little more than what was already known.

In the run-up to that release, Trump said that “the American people deserve transparency and truth.”

As he turns to heaven, the president has struck a similar tone, suggesting answers to decades-old questions are on the horizon.

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 start very, very soon,” he told supporters at a Turning Point USA event in Phoenix in April.

“So you can go out and see if that phenomenon is true. You’ll find out.’

Expert warns against raising expectations

Even before Trump’s directive, the Pentagon had been releasing government documents related to UFOs, now often called unexplained anomalous phenomena, or UAP, for years.

Citing national security concerns, Congress created an agency in 2022 to investigate UAP and release as much material as possible. The agency’s debut 2024 report revealed hundreds of new UAP incidents but found no evidence that the U.S. government had ever confirmed a sighting of alien technology. A second report on more recent observations is expected 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.

However, the agency’s previous director said Trump’s promises were blunders, a “shiny object” to distract Americans from the war with Iran. Sean Kirkpatrick, a physicist and former career intelligence officer who led the agency until 2023, said he has seen the government’s data and believes there are no revelations to be found.

“Readers should not hope that there will be a document with photos interviewing the aliens as they came down,” he said. “Because that simply doesn’t exist.”

Videos claiming to show alien technology often 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 believes explains the viral videos of fast, pill-shaped objects.

Pentagon not responding to UAP reports, Republican Party-led panel says

On Capitol Hill, videos like this have caught the attention of a small group of Republicans who join Trump in insisting that the Pentagon is withholding secrets.

The Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets conducted its own investigation into reports of mysterious aircraft near U.S. military installations, which the panel said pose a threat to national security and the armed forces.

Last fall, the task force heard testimony from current and former military personnel 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 join three similar objects. They drove away in no time, he said.

Trump’s interest in the topic has galvanized Republicans in Congress, including Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, an Air Force veteran who co-chairs the task force. Luna has criticized what she calls “more than adequate” transparency from the Pentagon.

In a March letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Luna demanded dozens of UAP videos identified by whistleblowers and labeled with names such as “Spherical UAP in Clouds.” Her deadline for Hegseth came and went, and no videos were produced.

Trump’s entry into the UFO battle drew applause from Luna, who told podcaster Joe Rogan last year that she has seen evidence of “interdimensional beings.” The Pentagon “can’t hide from our document request anymore!” Luna said on social media after Trump’s directive.