Barack Obama on aliens: the government is hiding nothing

Former president Barack Obama has once again said that the government is not hiding any extraterrestrial life. During an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Obama stressed that if the government were keeping a secret, it would definitely come out. The comments followed his earlier, somewhat odd, statement that aliens are "real," but that he had "not yet seen one."

Statements about extraterrestrial life

In March 2021, after being asked about the possible existence of aliens, Obama clarified his position on social media. He said he meant that statistically it is very likely that life exists elsewhere in the universe, even if he has personally seen no evidence of it. "I thought it was so obvious what I meant," Obama said during his interview with Colbert.

He went on to highlight the government’s shortcomings when it comes to secrecy: "For those of you who still think we’ve got little green men somewhere underground, I have to say the government is terrible at keeping secrets. If there were aliens or spaceships under the control of the U.S. government, I’ll promise you this: there’d be some guy taking selfies with one of the aliens and sending it to his girlfriend to impress her. It would leak!"

Questions as president

Obama has previously explained that when he became president, he asked about the existence of government records related to extraterrestrial life. During an appearance in 2021 with U.S. late-night host James Corden, he said he inquired whether there was a lab where "we kept the alien specimens and spaceships." The answer, he added, was no. "They did a little research and the answer was no," he said.

Even so, he acknowledged that there are images and reports of phenomena in the sky that are difficult to explain. Recently, there has been a lot of news about UAPs, or unidentified aerial phenomena, especially due to improved drone technology and global tensions. While many of these sightings can be explained, the U.S. government keeps a list of cases that remain hard to account for.

Reaction to rising interest in UFOs

The recent surge in interest in UFOs, now officially referred to as UAPs, has been in the spotlight, especially after comments from current leaders. Last month, former president Trump said a recent UFO review had uncovered some "very interesting documents" that would be released "very soon" for those interested in flying saucers. NASA administrator Bill Nelson has also promised that the agency will not hide the existence of aliens if they turn out to be the cause of any UAP it investigates.