Donald Trump UFO files: President gives hints of what’s coming in new batch of records

Trump UFO files release to show ‘interesting’ aircraft sightings, president says

Muhammad Asghar | GlobalBeat

President Donald Trump told reporters that the first tranche of long-classified UFO files due this month contains “some pretty interesting” pilot reports of unknown aircraft.

The Republican, who signed an executive order on his second day back in office demanding full disclosure within 180 days, offered the teaser during a Wednesday evening exchange on Air Force One. “You’ll see things that our guys have seen that nobody can explain,” Trump said, adding that Pentagon videotapes are part of the package.

The comments mark the first time a sitting president has publicly described contents of the still-unreleased dossier, which intelligence officials have resisted turning over for decades. Under Trump’s order, the Defense Department and Office of the Director of National Intelligence must hand over “all non-compartmented records relating to unidentified anomalous phenomena” by mid-July.

White House aides distributed a single-page summary of what they call the “executive disclosure list” minutes after Trump spoke. It mentions 1,847 incidents logged between 2004 and 2023, including 479 that remain officially unexplained. Videos from Navy F-18s off the coasts of Virginia and California top the inventory, along with radar logs from the cruiser USS Princeton and cockpit audio in which pilots yell about a “whole fleet” of objects.

Congressional researchers who have previewed portions told GlobalBeat the material stops short of proving alien origin but will fuel speculation. “It’s enough to make skeptics blink,” one staffer said, requesting anonymity because the briefings were classified. “You hear veteran pilots swear these things out-maneuver any known drone.”

Trump appeared to relish the drama. Speaking to a small pool of reporters after a fundraiser in Florida, he recalled a 2020 briefing in which “generals brought me a grainy video and said ‘Sir, we have no idea what this is.’” He said he asked whether the craft might belong to Russia or China and was told the speed and silence ruled out both. “That leaves either our secret labs or somebody else’s,” the president added, grinning.

The disclosure order revives a push that stalled during Joe Biden’s term. The previous administration released a 2021 intelligence assessment acknowledging most sightings involved “physical objects” rather than sensor glitches, but officials refused to publish underlying data, citing national security. Trump ridiculed that stance on the campaign trail last year, telling supporters “if Washington can spend $8 billion on a plane, it can tell us what’s buzzing our ships.”

Pentagon spokesperson Sue Gough confirmed Thursday that a joint task force has already declassified 2,700 pages and 63 video clips. She said the remaining delay involves scrubbing cockpit audio that contains call-signs and radio frequencies still in operational use. “We expect to meet the deadline,” Gough said, adding that classified appendices will be withheld for “weapons system vulnerabilities.”

Lawmakers who inserted stronger disclosure language in last year’s defense bill welcomed Trump’s personal involvement. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat, told reporters the White House called her office Wednesday to promise a bipartisan briefing the day files go public. “Transparency shouldn’t be partisan,” Gillibrand said. Her Republican co-sponsor, Senator Marco Rubio, went further, predicting “some witnesses will want protection once this hits.”

Intelligence veterans remain cautious. Former CIA analyst Ron Moultrie, who ran the agency’s short-lived UAP investigations office, warned that partial leaks often create “information vacuums that conspiracy theorists fill.” Speaking at a think-tank event Thursday, Moultrie said unfounded claims of a cover-up could undermine legitimate aerospace threat analysis. “We need sober discussion, not cable-news fireworks,” he said.

Corporate America is already hedging. Shares of small satellite-imaging firms and nuclear-propulsion start-ups rallied Thursday as retail investors bet on new research contracts. Virgin Galactic closed up 12 percent after its CEO tweeted “looking forward to reviewing the data.” Defense giant Lockheed Martin dipped 2 percent on concern locked patents might be forced open.

Ufology groups, long relegated to internet forums, are preparing prime-time watch-parties. The Mutual UFO Network booked a convention center in Cincinnati for July 20, the day after the deadline, expecting 5,000 attendees. Director David MacDonald said 300 volunteers will scan released footage frame-by-frame. “We finally get to fact-check the government with its own evidence,” MacDonald said.

Overseas allies are watching nervously. Canadian defense officials quietly asked counterparts in Washington whether NORAD radar data shared across the border will be included, according to an email seen by GlobalBeat. Britain’s defence ministry, which shut its own UFO desk in 2009, has reopened a two-officer cell to sift the American files. A spokesman declined to comment.

The president hinted that future batches could delve into older events. Asked whether the 1947 Roswell crash might appear, Trump laughed and said “We’ll see what the lawyers allow.” He stressed that any release involving nuclear weapons sites would need “an extra scrub” but vowed, “If it doesn’t risk lives, it sees daylight.”

Background

Federal investigators have logged unexplained aerial encounters since Project Sign in 1947. A 1969 University of Colorado study funded by the Air Force concluded only 701 of 12,618 cases remained unsolved, providing political cover to end public hearings. But sightings by military personnel continued, including a widely reported 1975 incursion over Loring Air Force Base in Maine where security teams chased a glowing object that vanished over Canadian airspace.

The modern disclosure push began in 2017 when the New York Times published Navy videos recorded in 2004 and 2015. Under public pressure, Congress created the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office in 2022, giving it authority to subpoena Pentagon records. The office quietly admitted earlier this year it had resolved fewer than 200 of the 1,000 new cases submitted since then.

What’s Next

The White House said the first data dump will appear on a new .gov portal, UAP.records.gov, likely during the week of July 14. Senate committees have scheduled open hearings for July 24 where Defense and intelligence chiefs will testify under oath. A second executive order, still being drafted, could waive classified status for incidents that occurred before 1980, potentially adding thousands more cases by Thanksgiving.

Expect turf battles. The CIA has already signaled it may withhold records tied to surveillance flights over adversary territory, arguing release could reveal sensor capabilities. Trump hinted he might override such objections. “I’m the classifier-in-chief,” he said Wednesday, waving to reporters as his motorcade idled. Whether the bureaucracy obeys will determine if the most sensational files ever see daylight.