US Politics
Barack Obama says aliens are real – but shoots down conspiracy theory about Area 51
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For decades Americans have wondered about the existence of aliens and the mysterious desert holding facility Area 51, and now Barack Obama – after two terms as president – has finally given an answer.
“They’re real, but I haven’t seen them, and they’re not being kept in – what is it?” Obama said, speaking during the No Lie podcast with Brian Tyler Cohen. “There’s no underground facility, unless there’s this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president of the United States.”
“What was the first question you wanted answered when you became president?” Cohen asked.
“Where are the aliens?” Obama replied, with a laugh.
The idea that a facility housing the remnants of aliens and Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO) exists under the highly classified Area 51 military base in southern Nevada has long-since obsessed conspiracy theorists.
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Among the theories about the secret activities going on at the facility include the storage, examination, and reverse engineering of crashed alien spacecraft, including materials supposedly recovered at Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947.
Others speculate that the facility is dedicated to developing all manner of things including intergalactic weapons, time travel and teleportation technology or even some form of weather control.
Obama’s comments on Area 51 and aliens come several months after the director of a documentary, alleging a major government cover-up of non-human intelligence, suggested that Donald Trump may soon confirm the existence of extra-terrestrial life forms.
“I think it’s only a matter of time before the release of this film is followed by a sitting president stepping to the podium and telling the world, ‘We’re not alone in the universe,'” Dan Farah, director of The Age of Disclosure, told Entertainment Weekly in late November.
“It’s the most significant moment a leader could possibly have.” The Independent contacted the White House for comment at the time.
Despite Farah’s claims Trump has not yet come forward publicly with a definitive answer about the existence of aliens, but mused over the possibility of extraterrestrial life during several interviews before his return to the White House.
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In July 2024, Trump told influencer Logan Paul that he wasn’t a “believer.” He added: “Probably I can’t say I am. But I have met with people that are serious people that say there’s some really strange things that they see flying around out there.”
Months later, in September 2024, when podcaster Lex Fridman asked the president whether he would push to release more footage of UAPs – or unidentified aerial phenomena – Trump replied: “I’ll do that. I would do that. I’d love to do that. I have to do that.”
The following month, Trump discussed the idea of intelligent life beyond Earth with Joe Rogan, saying the subject has “never been my thing.”
When Rogan asked what he thought about the existence of alien life, Trump said: “There’s no reason not to think that Mars and all these planets don’t have life.”
