Donald Trump

Donald Trump is the 47th President of the United States. In February 2026, he issued the most significant executive action on uap-disclosure to date.

UAP Disclosure Directive (February 2026)

• Precursor (Dec 2025): lue-elizondo revealed he had sent Trump a memo urging the appointment of a UAP adviser (“UAP czar”) to centralize fragmented reporting, framing UAP as a cybersecurity threat (src-elizondo-uap-cybersecurity-2025-12) — external advocacy predating the February directive.
• On approximately February 19-20, 2026, directed Defense Secretary Hegseth and agency leaders to “begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life” and UAP/UFO information
• Action reportedly followed former President Barack Obama’s podcast comments suggesting aliens are real
• White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly confirmed the directive
• A formal White House directive was to follow to compel transparency across the federal government
• DOD to coordinate with ODNI, suggesting a whole-of-government approach

See src-uap-trump-disclosure-2026 for full details.

Same-week reactions to the Feb 2026 directive

• lue-elizondo (NewsNation/CUOMO, Feb 20, 2026): the effort is a “tremendous undertaking” and the eventual file volume could “dwarf the millions of documents in the Epstein files.” Argued Trump would need to sign an executive order to compel agency compliance (src-newsnation-elizondo-pandoras-box-2026-02).
• ross-coulthart (NewsNation, Feb 21, 2026): cautionary frame — Trump has announced only a review of records, not declassification (src-newsnation-elizondo-pandoras-box-2026-02).
• avi-loeb (NewsNation/Jesse Weber Live, Feb 20, 2026): released files could yield “higher-quality images” and possibly puzzling retrieved materials — best resolved by wide sharing if non-adversarial (src-newsnation-elizondo-pandoras-box-2026-02).
• Rep. thomas-massie (R-KY, Feb 2026): publicly decries the directive as “the ultimate weapon of mass distraction” — only Republican-side dismissal of the disclosure effort captured in vault to date (src-al-jazeera-pursue-uap-files-2026-05).

March-April 2026 Follow-through

• Mar 7, 2026 — CNN reports interagency meetings have begun but no files released; odni says publicly that records “will soon be declassified.” Trump, aboard Air Force One, says of barack-obama’s prompt: “I don’t know if they’re real or not” (src-trump-uap-files-delay-2026-03).
• Mar 17, 2026 — White House registers alien.gov and aliens.gov domains during an appropriations lapse (src-alien-gov-domains-2026-03).
• Feb 28, 2026 — Initiated operation-epic-fury against Iran.
• Apr 14, 2026 — Pentagon misses Rep. Luna’s deadline for 46 UAP videos (src-pentagon-uap-deadline-missed-2026-04, src-war-department-uap-release-2026-04).
• Apr 17, 2026 — At the turning-point-usa Action Conference in Phoenix, Trump publicly tells the crowd UAP file releases will begin “very, very soon,” framing the topic as something he “saved for this crowd.” Deputy press secretary anna-kelly confirms the department-of-war tasking on the record (src-trump-tpusa-ufo-tease-2026-04). NBC News corroborates and adds Trump’s specific phrase that reviewers “found many very interesting documents,” plus lue-elizondo’s contemporaneous Congressional testimony, tim-burchett’s public thanks on X, and anna-paulina-luna’s subpoena threat (src-trump-ufo-files-interesting-2026-04).
• Apr 22-24, 2026 — In operation-epic-fury, Trump unilaterally extends the U.S.–Iran ceasefire after Iran skips the Islamabad talks; the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports continues into the “economic phase” (src-epic-fury-update-2026-04).
• Apr 29, 2026 — Hegseth’s FY27 department-of-war posture testimony to the house-armed-services-committee cites Golden Dome for America as one of Trump’s first executive orders and frames the FY27 $1.5T topline as a generational reindustrialization (src-hegseth-fy27-posture-testimony-2026-04).
• May 3, 2026 — At a White House event for NASA astronauts, Trump tells reporters the administration will release “a lot of things that we haven’t” and “some of it’s going to be very interesting.” A Pentagon statement confirms aaro is now coordinating with the White House on a “never-before-seen UAP information” rollout. sean-kirkpatrick dismisses the promises as “bluster” and a “shiny object” tied to the Iran war (src-trump-pentagon-uap-files-2026-05).
• May 8, 2026 — department-of-war launches pursue (Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters) at war.gov/UFO. Release 01 includes 162 files (108 redacted) — fbi-case-file-62-hq-83894, apollo-12/apollo-17 photos and transcripts, FBI New Year’s Eve 1999 photos, and an “ellipsoid bronze metallic object” eyewitness sketch. Co-principals on record: pete-hegseth (DoW), tulsi-gabbard (ODNI), kash-patel (FBI), jared-isaacman (NASA). Pentagon X-post framing: “the public can ultimately make up their own minds” (src-dow-uap-files-release-2026-05, src-pursue-portal-launch-2026-05, src-uap-files-rollout-interagency-2026-05, src-trump-uap-apollo-photos-2026-05, src-uap-files-public-conclusions-2026-05, src-war-department-uap-declassification-2026-05). Trump’s same-day Truth Social: “Whereas previous Administrations have failed to be transparent on this subject, with these new Documents and Videos, the people can decide for themselves, ‘WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?‘” (src-fortune-aldrin-apollo-11-uap-2026-05). avi-loeb’s May 10 Medium analysis (src-loeb-pentagon-uap-release-best-yet-2026-05) also captures Trump’s lighter framing of the release: “Have fun and enjoy!” Rep. eric-burlison’s formal House press release labels Trump “the disclosure president” (src-burlison-commends-trump-uap-release-2026-05). Matt Novak / Gizmodo frames the casual Trump posture (“first tranche,” “maximum transparency,” “Have Fun and Enjoy!”) as evidence the administration itself does not believe the contents are significant — see src-gizmodo-find-ufos-pentagon-videos-2026-05 and the broader disclosure-as-distraction thesis. Euronews (May 9, 2026) summarizes the European framing of the launch and surfaces a paul-peyerl FBI account of a 1944 Black Forest Nazi disc-aircraft (src-euronews-trump-162-ufo-files-2026-05).

July 21, 2026 — NDA-Waiver Directive

Per senior administration officials (Fox News, Morgan Phillips), Trump directed the department-of-war and intelligence community to let former employees/contractors with relevant UAP information meet designated officials at aaro or pursue and have prior NDAs abrogated. This is the administration’s response to Reps. eric-burlison and anna-paulina-luna’s June 9, 2026 call to waive NDAs and grant immunity (see uap-whistleblower-protections). Officials stressed this is explicitly not a declassification directive — only a channel for coming forward — and any information received will still pass through existing declassification review. The next pursue tranche was signaled “very soon.” (src-trump-uap-nda-waiver-directive-2026-07)

See also: pete-hegseth, aaro, uap-disclosure, barack-obama, turning-point-usa, anna-kelly, jd-vance, bill-clinton, jimmy-carter, ronald-reagan, pursue, uap-whistleblower-protections