Last Thursday, in a Truth Social post, Trump announced that he would be releasing files related to aliens and UFOs, saying, “Based on the tremendous interest shown, I will be directing the Secretary of War, and other relevant Departments and Agencies, to begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs), and any and all other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters…”
We know Trump loves his conspiracies, but why release these files? Well, as a distraction, of course! On Saturday, February 14, former President Barack Obama appeared on the No Lie Podcast hosted by journalist Brian Tyler Cohen. During a rapid-fire question-and-answer section, Cohen asked, “Are aliens real?” to which Obama answered, “They’re real, but I haven’t seen them”.
Obama has said that he inquired about aliens when he was first elected and went on to say during the podcast, “They’re not being kept in Area 51. There’s no underground facility unless there’s this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president”.
Over the weekend, clips from that interview began trending on social media, so much so that Obama released a statement on Instagram hoping to add more context to his answer. He stated, “Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there. But the distance between solar systems are so great that the chances we’ve been visited by aliens is low”. He plainly stated that he did not see any evidence of extraterrestrials during his presidency.
Well, that response didn’t do much to dissuade public interest, and it seems Trump wanted to jump on the bandwagon to get some “good” publicity—if that is even possible. His announcement about the release of this information has been met with loads of skepticism and downright frustration. Many view this as a blatant attempt to distract people from the Epstein files, which Trump himself has called a “democratic hoax” multiple times. The timing is also not lost on many, as this announcement was made the same day Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly Prince Andrew, was arrested for his connections to the Epstein files.
Rep. Thomas Massie stated in a post on social media that the Trump administration has “deployed the ultimate weapon of mass distraction, but the Epstein files aren’t going away… even for aliens”. Sean Kirkpatrick, the first director of the US Department of Defense’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, which is in charge of investigating unidentified flying objects and related phenomena, has publicly stated he views Trump’s order to release this information as a “distraction” and that people who are expecting to see evidence of alien life are going to be disappointed.
Ironically, late-night host, Seth Meyers predicted this exact scenario over 6 months ago. Last July, addressing the pending release of the Epstein files, Meyers joked that “[The Trump administration] must be finding so many mentions of Trump, they’re going to have to change the name to the ‘Trump files featuring Jeffery Epstein’. They are so desperate to distract everyone. I honestly think we’re just one Epstein story away from Trump announcing that UFOs are real”.
As someone who believes in other life in the universe, while skeptical, I am still interested to see what is in these files. However, it is important for everyone to acknowledge that Trump is only releasing these files so everyone will stop talking about what is in the Epstein files and his personal connections to those documents.
