The Executive Office of the President registered the domain aliens.gov on Wednesday a little after 6:30 AM according to a bot that monitors federal domains. There’s no associated website just yet, but the registration comes a month after Trump said he would direct the government to release files related to aliens and UFOs to the public.
Aliens and UFOs—now often called unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP)—have been a hot news topic over the last few years. Senator Chuck Schumer has pushed for declassification of government reports about strange lights in the sky; Blink-182 frontman Tom DeLonge’s To The Stars initiative released Pentagon footage of strange objects seen by Navy pilots; and Congress has held repeated hearings in an attempt to get to the bottom of the phenomenon. Interest died down somewhat last year when The Wall Street Journal reported that much of the information we now have is connected to a disinformation campaign and an elaborate Pentagon hazing ritual.
But humans will always look into the sky, and the phenomenon got new attention in February when former President Barack Obama discussed aliens during an interview with Brian Tyler Cohen. Cohen asked Obama if aliens were real. “They’re real but I haven’t seen them and 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 of the United States,” Obama said. The clip went viral.
Obama walked this back days later in a post on Instagram: “I was trying to stick with the spirit of the speed round, but since it’s gotten attention let me clarify. Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there. But the distances between solar systems are so great that the chances we’ve been visited by aliens is low, and I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!”
Four days later, a reporter asked Trump about the incident during a press conference on Air Force One.
“Well he gave classified information, he’s not supposed to be doing that,” Trump said.
“So aliens are real?” the reporter asked.
“Well I don’t know if they’re real or not, I can tell you he gave classified information, he’s not supposed to be doing that. He made a big mistake, he took it out of classified information. No, I don’t have an opinion on it. I never talk about it. A lot of people do. A lot of people believe it. Do you believe it, Peter?” Trump said.“The President can declassify anything that he wants to,” the reporter said.
“Well maybe I’ll get him out of trouble. I may get him out of trouble by declassifying.”
In a post on Truth Social later that day, Trump promised to do just that: “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. GOD BLESS AMERICA!”
The promised declassification of government reports related to aliens follows a now familiar Trump administration pattern. Trump ordered the declassification and publication of files related to JFK and Jeffrey Epstein, two long obsessed over conspiracy-related topics. Those disclosures, and especially the Epstein files, have had knock-on effects, including the release of nude images and naming of previously unknown victims.
