WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said he is directing federal agencies to release government documents that discuss extraterrestrial life and unexplained aerial phenomenon.

“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,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Thursday night.

Trump earlier Thursday accused former President Barack Obama of giving away classified information when he discussed the idea of extraterrestrial life during a recent podcast appearance.

“He gave classified information, he’s not supposed to be doing that,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. The president suggested he could get Obama “out of trouble” by declassifying the related information.

Obama told liberal commentator Brian Tyler Cohen in an interview earlier this month that aliens are “real,” though added that he hadn’t seen any, “and they’re not being kept in Area 51.” The former president later clarified that he didn’t mean to signal any special knowledge.

The U.S. intelligence community released a report in 2021 detailing what it knew about unidentified flying objects that have been spotted by military pilots over the past several decades. The unclassified report contained few conclusive answers and no mentions of theories that aliens might have been responsible for them, but said that the government wanted to take reports of such episodes more seriously.

That same year, the Pentagon released videos showing American military pilots tracking unidentified flying objects that rotated or quickly switched directions in mid-air.

Trump’s push to focus on aliens comes at the beginning of a hectic midterm election year, with a heavy public focus on information disclosed in files related to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein — many of which mention Trump by name — as well as the issue of affordability, which has weighed on his popularity ratings.

Republicans face an uphill battle to hold onto their congressional majorities as polls show voters have soured on the president’s approach to managing the economy and the cost of living.

In Georgia earlier on Thursday, Trump claimed victory on affordability, signaling an unwillingness to embrace the idea that economic concerns are growing as he begins to campaign for Republican candidates around the country.

Trump has come under repeated criticism from Democrats during his time in office for disclosing classified information, and was indicted on federal charges over allegations of willfully retaining classified defense documents after his first term. That case was subsequently dismissed when he won reelection in 2024.

(John Harney contributed to this report.)

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