President Donald Trump directed the declassification and public release of government records concerning unidentified aerial phenomena [1].
The move aims to increase transparency regarding unexplained aerial encounters and address longstanding public interest in the possibility of extraterrestrial life [1, 2].
To facilitate the release, the administration launched an online portal hosted on a government website [2, 4]. This portal contains previously unseen videos, photos, and documents sourced from the Department of Defense and federal intelligence agencies [1, 3, 4].
The order was announced during the first week of June 2024, with the portal going live on a Friday later that week [1, 3]. The directive required the Pentagon to open files that were previously restricted from public view [2].
Luis Elizondo, who has discussed these phenomena for eight years [5], noted the frequency of these encounters. "We’ve been saying for the last eight years … that there have been dozens upon dozens of these near‑air collisions that have occurred with military and civilian and commercial pilots," Elizondo said. "This is not just happening with military" [5].
The release of these files follows years of pressure from researchers and lawmakers to uncover what the U.S. government knows about non-human intelligence or advanced technology. By moving the records to a public portal, the administration has shifted the process from fragmented Freedom of Information Act requests to a centralized disclosure model [2, 4].
“Trump formally directed the declassification and public release of government records on unidentified aerial phenomena.”
This directive represents a significant shift in how the U.S. government handles sensitive intelligence regarding unidentified aerial phenomena. By transitioning from a culture of secrecy to a public-facing portal, the administration is acknowledging that the scale of these encounters—affecting both military and commercial aviation—is too large to remain classified without risking public trust.
