Former US President Barack Obama has clarified that he has not seen evidence of aliens making contact with Earth, after his comments on a podcast sparked a media frenzy. In a statement on Instagram, Obama said he was trying to stick with the spirit of a rapid-fire questioning segment when he answered 'they're real' to the question 'Are aliens real?'.
During the podcast with host Brian Tyler Cohen, Obama said: 'They're real but I haven't seen them.' He added that aliens were not being kept at Area 51, a classified air force site in Nevada, unless there was a conspiracy to hide them from the president. The comments were widely reported with headlines such as 'Obama says aliens are real'.
Obama's clarification noted that while the universe is vast and life likely exists elsewhere, the distances between solar systems make visitation unlikely. He stated: 'I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!'
The subject of UFOs has gained credibility in recent years, with Pentagon officials encouraging reporting of unidentified aerial phenomena. A recent government report documented over 750 new sightings between May 2023 and June 2024, including a video of a Hellfire missile bouncing off a glowing orb off the coast of Yemen.
Former US leaders have also engaged with the topic. Hillary Clinton vowed to investigate alien conspiracies during her 2016 campaign, while Donald Trump said he had met 'serious people' who reported strange sightings. Declassified documents from 2013 revealed that Area 51 was used for testing surveillance aircraft, which led to an increase in UFO reports.
