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The announcement by President Donald Trump to declassify government files on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) and UFOs has sparked public debate in the United States, where citizen interest in the topic has reached historic levels, reported AP.
On February 19, Trump posted on his social media Truth Social that he would order the review and release of official documents regarding government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs), as well as any other information connected to these highly complex, yet extremely interesting and important topics.
The official cited the tremendous interest shown by the public as the main reason for the measure, although he did not provide specific timelines or details regarding the scope of the declassification.
The Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth confirmed at the end of February that the Pentagon is actively working on the directive, in coordination with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
During his "Arsenal of Freedom" tour in Colorado, Hegseth pointed out that his teams are delving deeper to ensure full compliance with the executive order, emphasizing a deliberate process without exaggerated promises.
The debate intensified weeks before Trump's announcement when former President Barack Obama stated on February 14 during Brian Tyler Cohen's podcast that aliens are real, but he hasn't seen them, as El País recalled.
They are not being hidden in Area 51, unless there is a huge conspiracy keeping it from the President of the United States.
The next day, Obama posted on Instagram a clarification stating that his comment was based on astronomical statistics and that during his presidency he did not have evidence of extraterrestrial contact.
The public interest in the topic is not new, but it has grown steadily. A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in May 2025 revealed that 51% of American adults believe that UAPs are evidence of extraterrestrial intelligent life, compared to 33% recorded in 2021.
That same center surveyed in June 2025 that 65% of Americans support the complete declassification of government files on the subject. A Gallup poll from November 2025 found that 41% of respondents believe in extraterrestrial life visiting Earth, the highest level since 1997.
The anomaly resolution agency across all domains (AARO), established in 2022 under the Biden administration to centralize UAP research, has accumulated over 2,000 reports as of February 2026, none of which provide evidence of extraterrestrial technology or non-human intelligence.
The most recent annual report from the office, published in November 2024, recorded 757 new cases between May 2023 and June 2024, of which 21 remain "truly anomalous" without explanation.
The renewed debate has led scientists and experts to reflect on an unusual question: if humans have been wondering for generations what extraterrestrial life would be like, what would aliens think of us?
The physicist Avi Loeb from Harvard University stated to the AP agency that if he were to look at Earth from afar, he would be quite disappointed by the human focus on conflict, also warning about the risks of attributing to aliens our ignorance towards premature extraterrestrial explanations.
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