The Trump administration has released a trove of long-classified government files on UFOs and alleged extraterrestrial encounters, including photographs taken during the Apollo 12 and Apollo 17 space missions, in what the White House has described as an unprecedented act of transparency toward the American public.
The disclosure forms part of a new initiative called the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon Encounters — known as PURSUE — and represents the first in a planned series of releases. According to Fox News, the materials bring together UAP videos, photographs and original source documents from across the entire United States government into a single publicly accessible location for the first time.
A White House spokesman said: “While past administrations sought to discredit or dissuade the American people, President Trump is focused on providing maximum transparency to the public, who can ultimately make up their own minds about the information contained in these files.”
Among the most striking documents is a set of FBI photographs from New Year’s Eve 1999, showing unidentified objects in close proximity to US aircraft. A separate document summarises statements from seven federal officers drawn from different teams, who independently reported observing multiple UAPs over western America across a two-day period in 2023. The officers each described witnessing “orbs launching other orbs,” as well as a large stationary glowing orb and what was described as a large, seemingly transparent phenomenon likened to a “translucent kite.” Special agents’ reports detail orange orbs emitting smaller red orbs on at least five separate occasions, with the objects fading in and out of view.
Crucially, all archived materials represent unresolved cases — meaning the government was unable to reach any definitive conclusion about the nature of what was observed. The release is described as a “historic undertaking” requiring coordination between dozens of agencies and the review of tens of millions of records, many of which exist only on paper and span several decades.
Pete Hegseth, US Secretary of War, said: “These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fuelled justified speculation — and it’s time the American people see it for themselves. This release of declassified documents demonstrates the Trump administration’s earnest commitment to unprecedented transparency.”
Not everyone is convinced the files reveal what some had hoped. Former President Barack Obama pushed back against suggestions that the government had been concealing evidence of alien life, appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Tuesday. “For those of you who still think that we’ve gotten little green men underground somewhere, one of the things you learn as president is the government is terrible at keeping secrets,” he said. Addressing conspiracy theories about alien spacecraft, he added: “I promise you some guy guarding the installation would have taken a selfie with one of the aliens and sent it to his girlfriend to impress her. There would be leaks.”
