What Trump’s UFO deep dive might reveal to Americans

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. In the 1990s, the Central Intelligence Agency dug into all it knew about the possibility of extraterrestrial visits, ultimately revealing what it found: Most of the supposed early UFO sightings were highly classified spy planes flying over the U.S.

The Trump administration is taking another crack at the issue, to see if it can find a different answer. President Trump said this past week that he would direct the defense secretary and relevant departments to begin the process of releasing government files related to aliens, unidentified flying objects “and any and all other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters." Dozens of grainy infrared videos, captured by military aircraft, have surfaced over the years purporting to show unexplainable—possibly extraterrestrial—phenomena.

Internet headlines have often described vehicles traveling at speeds beyond any known technology, or breaking the laws of physics. Military officials have dismissed many of the incidents as birds, balloons or drones.

Pilots often experience an optical illusion of a passing object that can make it appear to be traveling at great speed even if it is barely moving, officials have said. Quirks of infrared cameras can make a balloon or piece of trash seem to disappear and reappear as it gets close to water, giving the impression of a flying craft dipping into the ocean and flying back out, former military officials have said.

A few of those sightings have continued to vex military investigators. We don’t believe “every object is a bird, a balloon or a UAV," the director of the Pentagon office tasked with digging into the cases, Jon Kosloski, told lawmakers in 2024.