geeky
During President Trump's time in office, the subject of aliens frequently came up in the news cycle. Ufologists hoped that the President would spill the beans on what the government knows about the UFOs, either through transparency or inadvertence, but that never really happened. In December 2017, the New York Times reported the existence of a $22 million Pentagon program that investigated unidentified aerial phenomena from 2007 until 2012. When White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked about this, she said that she could neither confirm nor deny if this was of interest to the President. She told the media, “Somehow that question hasn’t come up in our back-and-forth over the last couple days. But I will check into that and be happy to circle back.” Apparently, this was never followed up on.
In 2019, it was reported that many senators were anxious to be briefed on extraterrestrial developments after the Times reported in June of that year that Navy pilots were seeing unidentified aircraft off the eastern seaboard on an almost-daily basis in 2014 and 2015. The President is credited in creating a more open-minded approach to these reports, which had previously been discouraged. He said in an interview that month, “I want them to think whatever they think. I did have one very brief meeting on it. But people are saying they’re seeing UFOs. Do I believe it? Not particularly.” As for one of the videos, the President watched the video and also admitted to being briefed on the subject. But he did not sound like a true believer in the existence of aliens among us, acknowledging that either the evidence is sparse. However he told George Stephanopoulos of ABC News, “we’re watching” for aliens, “and you’ll be the first to know.”
Last year, in April of 2020, the Pentagon officially released three infrared videos featuring unidentified flying objects traveling at high speeds and making near-impossible turns. In one of the videos, the object is described as follows by now retired US Navy Pilot David Fravor: “As I got close to it, it rapidly accelerated to the south, and disappeared in less than two seconds. This was extremely abrupt, like a ping pong ball, bouncing off a wall. It would hit and go the other way.” Here are the videos that the US Navy released:
President Trump's comment was one of mixed skepticism and amazement. He said, “I just wonder if it’s real. That’s a hell of a video.”
Two months later, during an interview of the President and his eldest son on Father's Day, Donald Trump Jr. asked his father if he would ever tell the public about an alleged incident at Roswell in 1947. President Trump replied, “I won’t talk to you about what I know about it, but it’s very interesting.”
President Trump addressed the subject of UFOs during the most recent presidential campaign, just days after contracting the coronavirus. He said in an interview with Fox News on October 11, 2020 that he would “take a good, strong look” at a government program on UFOs. He said that he had heard about the Pentagon’s August announcement of a task force to investigate UFOs “two days ago”.
It was a former Israeli Defense Ministry official who has suggested to the media that President Trump knows more about the subject of visitors from other worlds than he is letting on. In fact, according to Haim Eshed, the former head of the Israeli Defense Ministry’s space directorate, the President is well aware of the existence of extra-terrestrials. In an interview to the nation’s Yediot Aharonot newspaper, Eshed claimed that aliens “have asked not to publish that they are here because humanity is not ready yet.” Described as a respected professor and former general, Eshed stated that President Trump knew of the aliens existence and was “on the verge of revealing” the blockbuster details, but was asked not to, so that “mass hysteria would not break out.” Eshed also claimed there “is an agreement between the U.S. government and the aliens. They signed a contract with us to do experiments here.”
Whether or not any of Eshed's claims are true, there has been a legitimate concern that now that he is out of office, President Trump will disclose classified information, possibly including what is known about ETs. According to national security officials who were interviewed by the Washington Post, they are worried that President Trump will disclose something he shouldn't, for example, as when he disclosed to Post reported Bob Woodward the existence of US nuclear weapons in Turkey. A number of retired military and political figures disclosed information on government research around UFOs, including former CIA directors John Brennan and Roscoe Hillenkoetter, former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and Canadian Defense Minister Paul Hellyer. Ufologists are hoping that President Trump will some day be added to this list.