Pentagon Releases Declassified UFO Files Following Trump Directive

May 13, 2026

The Pentagon released 161 declassified UFO and UAP files on May 8, 2026, following President Donald Trump's late February 2026 directive to disclose extraterrestrial-related documents. The files span several decades and include Apollo mission reports from astronauts like Buzz Aldrin and Alan Bean who observed unexplained lights in 1969, 2022 military footage from Iraq and Syria showing unidentified phenomena, and civilian testimonies dating back to 1957. While lawmakers like Representatives Tim Burchett and Anna Paulina Luna praised the release as a positive first step toward transparency, the documents contain no confirmation of extraterrestrial life. The disclosure comes after Congress held its first UFO hearings in 50 years in 2022, with Trump criticizing previous administrations for lacking transparency on the subject.

Pentagon UFO file release

▪Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon in late February 2026 to disclose files relating to extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFO)
▪The Pentagon released 161 declassified UFO files online on May 8, 2026
▪The Pentagon UFO files are accessible on the U.S. Department of Defense website, with more files to be released soon

Apollo mission light phenomena

▪Two Apollo 17 astronauts reported seeing flashing lights in 1972 while aboard the mission
▪Gemini 7 astronaut Frank Borman reported seeing an unidentified object in 1965, describing a monster and billions of small particles observed to the left of the spacecraft
▪Apollo 17 astronaut Jack Schmitt described the flashing lights as looking like the Fourth of July
▪Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean reported seeing particles and flashes of light navigating in space during the 1969 mission
▪The Apollo 17 astronauts suggested the light could have been the reflection of ice fragments
▪Buzz Aldrin observed what appeared to be a very bright light source during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, which the crew provisionally attributed to a possible laser

Military sightings Middle East

▪The Pentagon UFO files include videos recorded by U.S. armed forces in the Middle East dating from 2022
▪2022 footage recorded at an undisclosed Middle East location shows an oval object crossing the screen from left to right, which an accompanying report described as a potential missile

Civilian UFO reports

▪Interviews from September and October 2023 include U.S. citizens reporting metallic objects hovering in the air and materializing in the middle of intense light
▪A man told the FBI in a 1957 interview that he witnessed a large circular vehicle emerging from the ground

Political reactions to disclosure

▪Donald Trump stated on Truth Social after the Pentagon UFO file release that previous administrations failed to show transparency on the UFO subject
▪Barack Obama stated in a February 2026 interview that extraterrestrials are real, but he has not seen them
▪The U.S. Congress held the first hearings on UFOs in 50 years in 2022
▪Barack Obama later clarified his February 2026 statement, saying that statistically the chances of life elsewhere are high, but he saw no evidence of it during his presidency

UFO researcher community response

▪A UFO-focused Facebook group that Elaine Loperena moderates grew from approximately 40,000 members three years ago to nearly 100,000 members, with the recent increase occurring in the last few months
▪Elaine Loperena, a 69-year-old UFO researcher from Clovis, California, stated that she knew Donald Trump would announce the Pentagon UFO disclosure
▪Daniel Jones, an administrator of the Texas UFO Network Facebook page with over 25,000 members, stated that the Pentagon UFO files are intended to offer transparency to the American people and the general public