President Donald Trump on Thursday accused former President Barack Obama of mishandling sensitive material, days after the Democrat spoke about aliens during an interview. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump claimed Obama made a ‘big mistake’.
“He gave classified information; he’s not supposed to be doing that,” Trump said. “Big mistake.”
Trump insisted Obama’s comments amounted to revealing restricted material, though he declined to offer his own view on aliens.
“I don’t know if they’re real or not, I can tell you he gave classified information,” he continued. “He’s not supposed to be doing that. He made a big mistake. He took it out of classified information.”
Pressed further, he added, “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.”
What Obama actually said
The controversy began when podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen asked Obama in a February 14 interview whether aliens exist. Obama responded during a rapid-fire Q&A: “They’re real, but I haven’t seen them.”
He went on to dismiss theories about secret bases, saying: “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.”
The reply quickly drew attention online, prompting Obama to issue a clarification.
In a social media statement, he wrote: “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 are low, and I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!”
Obama’s office has not commented on Trump’s allegation.
UFO investigations continue in Washington
Obama’s remarks and Trump’s accusations come at a time when Congress and federal agencies are still assessing reports of unidentified aerial phenomena. Lawmakers have held three hearings since 2023, including testimony from four witnesses who claimed they encountered what they believed were UAPs.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon’s UFO office recently stated it had uncovered no “verifiable evidence” of extraterrestrial craft or activity. NASA released a similar conclusion in a September 2023 report, finding no proof that UAP have non-human origins.
