President Donald Trump accused Barack Obama of disclosing classified information in comments the former president made recently about aliens, then acknowledged hours later the "tremendous interest" in the topic and said he was ordering the government to release more information.
"He gave classified information, he's not supposed to be doing that," Trump told reporters Feb. 19 aboard Air Force One, adding Obama's comments were a "big mistake."
Podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen asked Obama if aliens are real in an interview published Feb. 14 and the former president replied: "They're real, but I haven't seen them."
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"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," Obama added.
The brief comment during a lightning round of questions quickly attracted attention and Obama later sought to clarify his remarks with a statement on social media.
“I was trying to stick with the spirit of the speed round, but since it’s gotten attention, let me clarify," Obama wrote. "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 is low, and I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!”
Pressed on whether he was confirming the existence of aliens in saying Obama's comments disclosed classified information, Trump continued to criticize the former president.
"I don't know if they're real or not, I can tell you he gave classified information," Trump said. "He's not supposed to be doing that. He made a big mistake. He took it out of classified information."
"No, I don't have an opinion on it," Trump added. "I never talk about it. A lot of people do. A lot of people believe it."
Obama's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump later wrote on social media that "based on the tremendous interest shown" he was directing the Department of Defense and other agencies to disclose government records on "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."
Congress has heard testimony on unidentified flying objects, also known as unidentified anomalous phenomena, three times since 2023. Four witnesses testified in September about seeing what they believed were UAPs, and the hearing also included a video purporting to show a U.S. military drone engaging a mysterious object.
The Pentagon's UFO office recently reported that it had found no "verifiable evidence" of extraterrestrial beings, activity or technology, and NASA put out a report in September 2023 stating that the agency had not found any evidence that UAPs were extraterrestrial in nature.
Contributing: Eric Lagatta, Anthony Robledo
(This story was updated to add a video.)
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: After Obama says they're real, Trump orders release of government files on UFOs
