Barack Obama is the 44th U.S. President. His February 2026 remarks on Brian Tyler Cohen’s podcast (“They’re real but I haven’t seen them”) went viral and are widely credited as the trigger for donald-trump’s February 2026 uap-disclosure directive (src-uap-trump-disclosure-2026).
Obama later clarified on social media that he “saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us” — framing his podcast comment as referring to the statistical likelihood of life elsewhere in the universe rather than confirmed UAP incidents.
As president, Obama signed Executive Order 13526 (2009), which establishes the framework for classified national security information and underpins the presidential declassification authority now being invoked for UAP releases.
Sources
- src-trump-uap-files-delay-2026-03
- src-pentagon-uap-deadline-missed-2026-04
- src-trump-tpusa-ufo-tease-2026-04
- src-uap-files-rollout-interagency-2026-05 — CBS reiterates Obama’s Feb 2026 podcast remark as the proximate trigger for the pursue launch on 2026-05-08
- src-trump-uap-apollo-photos-2026-05