President Donald Trump has criticized former President Barack Obama over remarks that Trump claims involved “classified information” regarding extraterrestrial life.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday, Feb. 19, Trump suggested Obama should not have addressed questions about aliens during a recent interview.
“He gave classified information. He’s not supposed to be doing that,” Trump said, according to the New York Post. “I don’t know if they’re real or not, but I can tell you he gave classified information.”
Trump added that Obama “made a big mistake,” while also noting that he personally avoids discussing the subject. “No, I don’t have an opinion on it. I never talk about it. A lot of people do. A lot of people believe it,” he said.
Obama, 64, made the comments during an interview with YouTuber and political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen. In a rapid-fire segment, Cohen asked the former president whether aliens were real.
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“They’re real, but I haven’t seen them,” Obama replied.
He went on to reference Area 51, the highly classified U.S. Air Force facility long associated with conspiracy theories. “And they’re not being kept in… what is it? Area 51,” Obama said. “There’s no underground facility, unless there’s this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president of the United States.”
After the clip gained widespread attention online, Obama later clarified his remarks on Instagram.
“I was trying to stick with the spirit of the speed round, but since it’s gotten attention let me clarify,” he wrote. “Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there.”
He added, however, that the likelihood of alien visitation remains low. “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!”
Obama has previously joked about the topic. During a 2021 appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden, he said curiosity about alien life was among his early questions after taking office.
“The truth is, that when I came into office, I asked, ‘Is there the lab somewhere where we’re keeping the alien specimens and spaceship?’” Obama said.
