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WASHINGTON — <\/span>WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump<\/a> says the Pentagon is preparing to release some \u201cvery interesting\u201d UFO files uncovered by his administration, generating a mix of buzz and skepticism as he hints at new revelations around questions of alien life<\/a>.<\/p>\n Trump started stoking interest in the extraterrestrial in February, directing federal agencies<\/a> to release their records related to extraterrestrial life and UFOs<\/a>. Since then, he has built suspense with tantalizing updates, teasing an imminent release of documents never before shared by the U.S. government.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to be releasing a lot of things that we haven’t,\u201d Trump said Wednesday at a White House event celebrating NASA astronauts. \u201cI think some of it\u2019s going to be very interesting to people.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump has relished in portraying himself as the president who spills the secrets. In the first week returning to office, he ordered the release of records<\/a> related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. The disclosures revealed little beyond what was already known.<\/p>\n In the buildup to that release, Trump said \u201cthe American people deserve transparency and truth.\u201d Now, as he turns to the sky, the president has struck a similar tone, suggesting answers to decades-old questions may be on the way. His February directive on social media called for transparency around “alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs).\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cThe first releases will begin very, very soon,\u201d he told supporters in April at a Turning Point USA event<\/a> in Phoenix. \u201cSo you can go out and see if that phenomena is correct. You\u2019ll figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n Even before Trump’s directive, the Pentagon was years into a process to declassify and release government documents related to UFOs, now often referred to as unexplained anomalous phenomena, or UAP.<\/p>\n Citing concerns over national security, Congress created an office in 2022 to investigate UAP and declassify as much material as possible. The office’s 2024 debut report<\/a> 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 covering more recent sightings is expected to come soon.<\/p>\n That agency, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office<\/a>, is now working with the White House to release \u201cnever-before-seen UAP information,\u201d according to a Pentagon statement.<\/p>\n The office’s previous director, however, said Trump’s promises were bluster, a \u201cshiny object\u201d to distract Americans from the war with Iran<\/a>. Sean Kirkpatrick, a physicist and former career intelligence officer who led the office until 2023, said he has seen the government’s records and believes there are no bombshell revelations to be found.<\/p>\n \u201cReaders should not get their hopes up that there\u2019s going to be some document with photos, interviewing the aliens when they came down,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause that just doesn\u2019t exist.\u201d<\/p>\n Videos purporting to show alien technology tend to have mundane explanations, he said. Modern infrared cameras used by the U.S. military often capture jet engines and other hot objects in a long thermal bloom, which, Kirkpatrick said, explains viral videos of speedy, pill-shaped objects.<\/p>\n On Capitol Hill, those types of videos have caught the attention of a small group of Trump-aligned Republicans who insist the Pentagon is holding back secrets.<\/p>\n The Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets has been conducting its own investigation into reports of mysterious aircraft near U.S. military installations, which the panel says pose a threat to national security and the armed forces.<\/p>\n Last fall, the task force heard testimony<\/a> from current and former service members 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 \u201cTic Tac\u201d shaped object emerge from the ocean and link up with three similar objects. They sped away in an instant, he said.<\/p>\n Trump’s interest in the subject has energized congressional Republicans, including Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, an Air Force veteran who co-chairs the task force. Luna has criticized what she calls \u201cless than adequate\u201d transparency from the Pentagon.<\/p>\n In a March letter<\/a> to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth,<\/a> Luna demanded dozens of UAP videos identified by whistleblowers and labeled with names such as \u201cSpherical UAP in clouds.\u201d Her deadline for Hegseth came and went, and no videos were produced.<\/p>\n Trump’s entry to the UFO fray drew applause from Luna, who last year told podcaster Joe Rogan that she has seen evidence of \u201cinterdimensional beings.\u201d The Pentagon \u201ccan\u2019t hide from our docs request anymore!\u201d Luna said on social media after Trump’s directive.<\/p>\n Trump appears skeptical about the existence of extraterrestrial life. Addressing the Turning Point USA crowd in Phoenix, he said, \u201cI figured this was a good crowd because I know you people, you\u2019re really into that. I don\u2019t know if I am.\u201d<\/p>\n Why he made the revelation at that event, held at a megachurch, is unclear. A day earlier, Trump had spoken in Las Vegas, not far from Area 51<\/a>, a top-secret Cold War test site that has fueled UFO conspiracy theories.<\/p>\n Vice President JD Vance has described himself as \u201cobsessed\u201d with UFO files. In March, he said he has been trying to find time to investigate Area 51 since he took office.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve still got three more years as vice president,\u201d Vance told conservative podcaster Benny Johnson. \u201cI will get to the bottom of the UFO files.\u201d Invoking his Christian faith, Vance said he believes sightings reported to be aliens are actually the work of spiritual demons.<\/p>\n Even before Trump tackled the topic, alien buzz was already in the air.<\/p>\n It’s back in Hollywood with an upcoming Steven Spielberg movie<\/a>, \u201cDisclosure Day.\u201d Former President Barack Obama made a splash in February when he declared on a podcast that aliens are real<\/a>. He later clarified that he had seen no evidence but that \u201cthe odds are good there\u2019s life out there.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump is hardly the first president drawn to UFO mysteries. President Bill Clinton has said he once ordered a review of the Roswell Incident \u2014 something had crashed in 1947 at a New Mexico ranch and officials later said the debris was the remnants of a high-altitude weather balloon \u2014 around its 50th anniversary in 1997. Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan claimed to have seen UFOs before their time in the White House.<\/p>\n The U.S. government has been investigating UFO reports since the 1940s, in part to determine if they represent advanced technology from competing nations or \u201cevidence of off-world technology,\u201d according to the Defense Department’s 2024 report<\/a>.<\/p>\n In online communities devoted to UFOs, some see Trump’s promise as a step in the right direction; others believe it will come to nothing. For people who follow the topic closely, promises of big revelations have never lived up to the hype, said Greg Eghigian, a Pennsylvania State University professor who wrote a book on the history of UFO sightings.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is almost no satisfaction that is possible for many of the really die-hard folks,\u201d he said. \u201cSo in a sense, I think disappointment can almost be guaranteed to be expected no matter what comes out of this.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n