WASHINGTON – President Trump is entering strange territory.
Trump said in a social media post Thursday night that based on the “tremendous interest demonstrated,” he will direct the Secretary of Defense and relevant departments to begin the process of releasing government files related to extraterrestrial life, unidentified atmospheric phenomena, unidentified flying objects “and any and all other information associated with these very complex, but extremely interesting and important matters.”
Trump’s order comes amid renewed interest in aliens after former President Barack Obama said in a podcast over the weekend: “They’re real, but I haven’t seen them.”
Obama’s comments sparked an online firestorm, forcing him to later retract them.
“I was trying to stick to the spirit of speed, but since it’s getting attention, let me clarify,” Obama wrote on social media. “Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds of life being there are good. But the distances between solar systems are so great that the chances of aliens visiting us are low, and I have seen no evidence during my presidency that aliens have contacted us. Really!”
Trump was asked about Obama’s statements while traveling to Georgia on Thursday to give a speech about the economy and accused the former president of providing classified information. “I don’t know if it’s real or not. I can tell you, he provided classified information. He’s not supposed to do that — he made a big mistake. He took it out of classified information.”
Write to Alex Leary at alex.leary@wsj.com and Alyssa Lukpat at alyssa.lukpat@wsj.com
