Trump Says Obama Made a ‘Big Mistake’ by Addressing Whether or Not Aliens Exist

President Donald Trump criticized former President Barack Obama after Obama made remarks suggesting aliens are “real,” saying Obama should not have addressed the topic in public.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday, Feb. 19, Trump claimed Obama had shared “classified information” by answering a question about extraterrestrial life.

“He gave classified information, he’s not supposed to be doing that,” Trump said. He added that he didn’t know whether aliens exist, but insisted Obama “gave classified information” and “made a big mistake,” saying he had pulled the matter from “classified information.”

Obama, 64, made the comments during a recent interview with YouTuber and political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen. During a rapid-fire segment, Cohen asked whether aliens were real.

“They’re real, but I haven’t seen them,” Obama replied.

He went on to joke that they were not being hidden at Area 51, referencing the long-running conspiracy theory surrounding the U.S. Air Force facility in Nevada. Obama said there was no underground facility, unless there were an enormous conspiracy that kept such information even from the president.

After the exchange spread widely online, Obama commented on Instagram to add context to his answer. He said he was responding in the spirit of the speed round, and noted that given the vastness of the universe, the odds of life existing elsewhere are high. At the same time, he said the distances between solar systems make it unlikely humans have been visited, and added that he saw no evidence during his presidency that extraterrestrials had made contact with the United States.

Obama has addressed the subject humorously in the past. During a 2021 appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden, he joked that one of the first things he asked after taking office in 2009 was whether there was a lab somewhere holding alien specimens and a spaceship.