The War Department released more than 160 files Friday related to sightings of UFOs dating back nearly 80 years, two days after President Trump predicted, “I think some of it’s going to be very interesting to people.”
The disclosure of 162 files by the Pentagon follows a presidential order from February calling for transparency around “alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs).”
“The American people can now access the federal government’s declassified UAP files instantly. The latest UAP videos, photos, and original source documents from across the entire United States government are all in one place – no clearance required,” the Pentagon said in a post on X broadcasting the file dump.
“While past administrations sought to discredit or dissuade the American people, President Trump is focused on providing maximum transparency to the public, who can ultimately make up their own minds about the information contained in these files.”
Among the documents published Friday were a trove of intelligence reports and FBI case files that included apparent eyewitness testimony and public reports about possible sightings over the years.
A chunk of the FBI files come with a note admitting that some of the information had already been “partially” been made public.
Transcripts from NASA astronauts reporting unidentified objects on missions were also included in the initial batch of documents, which other files just included news clippings about apparent UFO sightings dating back to the 1950s.
Even before Trump’s directive, the Pentagon was years into a process to declassify and release government documents related to UFOs, often referred to by the feds as unexplained anomalous phenomena, or UAP.
Sean Kirkpatrick, a physicist and former career intelligence officer who led the War Department’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) until 2023, said he has seen the government’s records and believes there are no bombshell revelations to be found.
“Readers should not get their hopes up that there’s going to be some document with photos, interviewing the aliens when they came down,” he told the Associated Press this week. “Because that just doesn’t exist.”
Kirkpatrick went on to explain that videos purporting to show alien technology tend to have mundane explanations. Modern infrared cameras used by the US military often capture jet engines and other hot objects in a long thermal bloom, which explains viral videos of speedy, pill-shaped objects.
That explanation has not deterred Republican elected officials like Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), who claimed on Joe Rogan’s podcast last year to have seen evidence of “interdimensional beings” and accused the Pentagon of “less than adequate” transparency about the matter.
Even Vice President JD Vance has declared he is “obsessed” with the UFO files, saying in March he has been trying to find time to investigate Area 51 since he took office and believes what most call alien sightings are actually glimpses of demonic figures.
“I’ve still got three more years as vice president,” Vance told conservative podcaster Benny Johnson at the time. “I will get to the bottom of the UFO files.”
AARO’s 2024 debut report revealed hundreds of new UAP incidents but found no evidence that the US government had ever confirmed a sighting of alien technology. A second report covering more recent sightings is expected to come soon.
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Trump’s order to release UFO files comes after he mandated the release of records related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. in the first week of his second term in January 2025.
Those disclosures revealed little beyond what was already known about the trio of murders that defined the turbulent 1960s.
With Post wires