The Trump administration’s release of troves of material related to unidentified flying objects – and promises of more – has resurrected a debate about the possibility that alien life exists and that the U.S. government is hiding the proof.
A new Defense Department website with an “X-Files”-adjacent design uploaded a tranche of 161 UFO files to the public on May 8. “These files, hidden behind classification, have long fueled justified speculation – and it’s time the American people see it for themselves,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth writes on the site.
Americans have been fascinated with the possibility of contact with alien beings since at least the 1940s, following numerous reported “flying saucer” sightings in the summer of 1947. The interest in UFOs ramped up again during the Cold War, when many Americans felt scared and isolated by existential nuclear dangers.
Why We Wrote This
President Trump has released 161 UFO files to the public, citing the need for transparency. But critics view the release as a play to a conspiracy-curious base.
President Donald Trump has long teased a broader release of what might be thousands of documents related to what are now referred to as unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs). In what he says is a national bid for transparency, the president has also ordered the release of documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Critics call this push for transparency ironic, given the record of Mr. Trump’s previous administration: stonewalling public records, hiding tax returns, and fighting lawsuits over concealed White House visitor logs and nondisclosure agreements. Supporters, meanwhile, view Mr. Trump as a promoter of “radical transparency,” and they point to his direct, unfiltered communication style as authentic and an unapologetic way to expose what he refers to as the “deep state.”
Releasing the files at a time when his poll numbers are low could be, in part, a way to satisfy Mr. Trump’s conspiracy-curious base. But in this case, it’s also a test of whether Americans more broadly can handle what the government knows about the question of non-Earth-based life.
“Regardless of why [the UFO conspiracy theory] sort of started, it’s been with us for a while,” says Joseph Uscinski, a political scientist at the University of Miami. “A lot of people believe that either aliens have landed here or are flying around or the government knows things that they won’t tell us.”
What are UFOs, or UAPs, and what did the May 8 tranche show?
Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan were both open about witnessing UFOs, though they drew different conclusions from them. While Carter formally filed a report about a strange, hovering light in 1969, Reagan simply noted a mysterious, fast-moving light while flying in a private plane in 1974.
The May 8 collection of files includes several videos and documents, including an Oct. 14, 1955, intelligence report featuring witness accounts of an “unconventional aircraft in the trans-Caucasus region of the USSR.”
But evidence that such reports and images may be proof of alien life forms has remained scant through the decades. That’s in part why the sightings have been reclassified as UAPs – framed less as an alien invasion and more as potential national security breaches by hostile foreign governments.
Experts have debunked most purported UFO videos and say that most of the blinking lights and flying discs that witnesses say they see in the skies are most likely mundane objects such as commercial aircraft and drones, satellites, camera lens flares, or optical distortions, cloud formations, and stars. Sometimes, atmospheric conditions cause such things to appear to twinkle or change color, and glowing atmospheric gases can create false radar returns and strange visual illusions.
“If you see something that you don’t know what it is, you don’t get to say it’s aliens,” says Professor Uscinski, co-author of “American Conspiracy Theories.”
Given the lack of proof, why do people believe in aliens?
The fascination with UFOs might reflect a deep longing to understand the mysteries of the cosmos.
Movie hits such as “Project Hail Mary,” which features interstellar travel and a lovable alien named Rocky, underscore the popular interest. That appeal is often combined with darker notions, prevalent among some Americans, that hidden motives and undercover agents guide the U.S. government.
On a podcast with Joe Rogan, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a Florida Republican, said that she has seen evidence of “interdimensional beings.” She suggested that the Pentagon has slow-walked the release of corroborating information.
Ms. Luna, an Air Force veteran who chairs the House Oversight Committee’s Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, and who says her work is to end the government’s “veil of secrecy,” has urged people to read the Bible’s non-canonical Book of Enoch, which suggests that 200 angels, known as watchers, came to Earth, procreated with women, and shared cosmic secrets.
Proof of aliens or UFOs or not, such beliefs are, in any case, a testament to the human imagination’s ability to bend the unknown into a sense of possibility. They also highlight how the cultural impact of the files on the American psyche might ultimately be greater than the scientific one, says William Henry, author of “Lost Secrets of the Watchers.”
“Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and there’s a curl of truth in all these myths,” Mr. Henry says. “This is not just about the nuts and bolts of crashed flying saucers. It totally legitimizes the discussion of these mysteries.”
Why is Congress focused on UFOs?
Part of what has driven UFO mania is the notion that nonelected people in government know more than they’re telling. The mysteries at Roswell, New Mexico (C’mon, was it really a weather balloon?), and Area 51 in Nevada (Do we now possess alien technology?) are at the top of that list.
Even before President Trump’s directive, the Defense Department had begun to declassify UFO-related files. A 2024 congressional report found no evidence that the government has come into contact with alien technology. A second report, however, has been promised. The Pentagon agency handling the matter, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, is now responsible for releasing the documents.
During testimony last year to Representative Luna’s task force, a senior Navy officer described seeing a mysterious object off the coast of California in 2023. That glowing, Tic Tac-shaped object, he said, rose from the ocean and linked up with three similar objects, all of which quickly whooshed away. The officer, Senior Chief Petty Officer Alexandro Wiggins, who worked in radar operations, convinced a doubting radar officer that the craft was not just an atmospheric anomaly. This testimony – along with other accounts of “transmedium” (air-to-water) anomalies – prompted Ms. Luna and the House task force to launch a broader transparency investigation.
What has President Trump said about the release of the UFO files?
Mr. Trump, who is fond of spreading conspiracy theories online, has said government transparency is a hallmark of his presidency. So, the release of the UFO files is providing a needed rally cry.
“Have Fun and Enjoy!” Mr. Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
But the files are also a potential distraction from the Iran war, the long-running Epstein saga, and economic headwinds for the White House ahead of November’s midterm elections.
On the day the files were released, Rep. Tim Burchett, a Tennessee Republican, said on Mr. Rogan’s podcast that he believed the Trump administration genuinely is interested in transparency. He also doubted whether the UFO files would change any minds about whether nonhuman space travelers exist.
But some, like Mr. Henry, a regular on the History Channel show “Ancient Aliens,” have reached beyond the conspiracy theories and politics to the gee-whiz wonder of it all. The UFO file dump, he said, could reinforce faith not just in government, but also in human knowledge.
“Nobody knows what’s going to happen on the other side” of such revelations, he adds. “It should unite us as a people.”