President Donald Trump accused Barack Obama of sharing classified information following the former president’s recent comments about aliens being real.
“They’re real, but I haven’t seen them. And they’re not being kept in…Area 51. There’s no underground facility unless there’s this enormous conspiracy, and they hid it from the president of the United States,” Obama told podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen. He later clarified that he saw “no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us.”
On Thursday, when asked about Obama’s remarks and whether or not there are actual aliens, President Trump told reporters on Air Force One, “Well, I don’t know if they’re real or not, but I can tell you he gave classified information. He made a big mistake.”
He added, “He gave classified information; he’s not supposed to be doing that.”
Public interest in the existence of aliens has persisted for decades and has spawned numerous conspiracies. Sightings of mysterious drones in U.S. skies, flying over sensitive airspaces such as military bases and airports in 2023 and 2024, sparked alarm, including from members of Congress who demanded intelligence analysis. Under President Joe Biden, several flying objects were shot down by U.S. fighter jets.
But Trump’s callout of Obama for allegedly sharing classified information follows a series of personal and political attacks over the years.
Trump, who once led the racist birther conspiracy about Obama’s citizenship, has repeatedly accused America’s first Black president of spying on his 2016 presidential campaign. Last year, Trump, without evidence, suggested that the 44th president of the United States should be jailed for “treason” in connection with an intelligence report on Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
Most recently, Trump posted a racist video of Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, depicting the former president and first lady as apes. The president even used a tribute post to Rev. Jesse Jackson, who died on Tuesday at 84, to take a dig at Obama.
Responding to Trump’s racist video of him and his wife, President Obama told Cohen, “It’s important to recognize that the majority of the American people find this behavior deeply troubling.”
He added, “It is true that it gets attention, that it’s a distraction. But as I’m traveling around the country, you meet people… they still believe in decency, courtesy, kindness. And there’s this sort of clown show that’s happening in social media and on television.”
