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Barack Obama: Aliens ‘Are Real, But I Haven’t Seen Them’
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Title: Election 2025 Governor Virginia Image ID: 25305737370199 Article: Former PresidentAP Photo/Steve Helber
Lowell Cauffiel15 Feb 2026407
3:55
Former President Barack Obama has weighed in on phenomena in the world’s skies that have perplexed observers since “flying saucers” were first reported after World War II.

“Are aliens real?” YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen asked Obama in an interview posted Saturday.

“Uh, they’re real, but I haven’t seen them,” the former president responded.

He then quickly addressed speculation around Nevada’s Area 51, a secretive military test site that has long been claimed to contain downed extraterrestrials and their aircraft, which are purportedly being reverse-engineered.

“Uh, they’re real, but I haven’t seen them,” Obama explained. “And they’re not being kept in uh what is it? Area 51. There’s no underground facility unless there’s this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president of the United States.”

Watch:

Of course, an “enormous conspiracy” is exactly what has been alleged by many documentaries on the issue; that an “underground facility” at Area 51 is a “need to know” closely held secret, even kept from presidents.

Cohen then asked Obama what question he most wanted answered upon entering the White House.

“Where are the aliens?” Obama replied with a laugh. It was not clear whether he was serious or joking.

However, Obama is not the first president to pose the question.

Jimmy Carter, during the transition period after his 1976 election as the 39th president, reportedly asked then-CIA Director George H.W. Bush for access to UFO files. Bush reportedly refused, saying his curiosity was not a sufficient enough reason for disclosure.

John Podesta, a chief of staff for President Bill Clinton and counselor to Obama, for years pushed for disclosure, including reportedly picking up the phone “to call the Air Force and ask them what’s going on in Area 51,” according to a report in 1998.

Podesta also famously tweeted at the end of his time with the Obama administration that his “biggest failure” in 2014 was not securing the release of the government’s UFO files.

Area 51, as well as Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, are often cited as locations of a secret government program to study and reverse engineer alien technology. A scientist named Bob Lazar in 1989 claimed to be part of a classified project doing exactly that at the Nevada site.

While the subject of UFOs has often been ridiculed, in recent years disclosures by the government have resulted in a far-more serious approach.

Lawmakers, including former senator and now Secretary of State Marco Rubio (R-Florida) and the late Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), have called for government transparency of the Pentagon programs that log and study what are now called UAPs (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena) as a potential threat to national security.

UAPs were the subject of a stunning House hearing two years ago, which featured Air Force personnel and a government whistleblower, David Grusch, who said crashed alien craft and “non-human biologics” have been recovered as part of a secret government program.

Watch:

Serious treatment by lawmakers and the news media of UAPs or UFOs clearly emerged after a New York Times article in 2017 revealed a secret Pentagon program was tracking the phenomena.

It included official fighter-jet footage of unidentified craft encountered during military exercises near San Diego that appeared to defy the known abilities of manned aircraft.

1. One the one hand, even assuming a very low probability of life of some kind (even single-celled organisms) evolving on any given planet, there are almost certainly such a huge number of planets in the known universe that the probability of some life existing somewhere in the universe is well above zero. Of course, the probability that such a life-form will have evolved to a level of technical sophistication equal to or greater than our own is much smaller.
2. But on the other hand, the distances separating our planet from even the nearest possibly earth-like planets are so huge, that it is unlikely that we shall ever receive a visit from any life-forms from outside our solar system. And in addition to the simple distance factor, there is the point (which I have not so far seen expressed publicly, though it may have been) that life-forms on a distant planet would have a choice of a vast number of star-systems that are at equal or lesser distances from their home planet than ours. So even assuming that the extremely low probability event of the evolution of an intelligent and technically sophisticated life-form does occur somewhere, we also have to reckon on the low possibility that such a life-form will select our particular star system to visit.
3. Since probabilities multiply rather than add, the chance of our planet receiving a visit from intelligent life forms from elsewhere in the universe is practically negligible.

Hours after Barack Obama caused a frenzy by saying aliens were real on a podcast, the former US president has posted a statement clarifying that he has not seen any evidence of them.

In a conversation with the American podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen over the weekend, Obama appeared to confirm the apparent existence of aliens during a speed round of questioning where the host asks guests quick questions and the guests respond with brief answers.

After he was asked “Are aliens real?”, Obama said: “They’re real but I haven’t seen them.”

He went on: “They’re not being kept at Area 51. There’s no underground facility unless there’s this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president of the United States.”

The comment was picked up by media outlets around the world, with headlines such as “Former US president Barack Obama says aliens are real” and “‘They’re real’: Obama’s shock alien claims”. Time Magazine covered the drama, reporting: “Obama says aliens are real, but they aren’t at Area 51”.

However, following the media frenzy, Obama released a statement on Instagram on Sunday evening.

“I was trying to stick with the spirit of the speed round, but since it’s gotten attention let me clarify. Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there,” he said. “But the distances between solar systems are so great that the chances we’ve been visited by aliens is low, and I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!”

There is a long-running conspiracy theory claiming that the US government is hiding extraterrestrials at Area 51, a highly classified air force site in Nevada.

In 2019, after 1.5 million people signed up to “storm” the site, approximately 150 social media influencers gathered around the airstrip but the event ended anticlimactically, with only a few arrests, and ultimately turned into a music festival.

Declassified documents released in 2013 revealed that the secret airstrip was actually used for aerial testing of US government projects including the U-2 and Oxcart aerial surveillance programs.

“High-altitude testing of the U-2 soon led to an unexpected side-effect – a tremendous increase in reports of unidentified flying objects (UFOs),” the documents said.

Chap wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 16, 2026 2:32 pm

Response to the Obama interview is (surprise!) somewhat overblown.

See in particular the bolded section below.

Like many scientifically educated people, my own view is close to that of President Obama, and it is as follows:

1. One the one hand, even assuming a very low probability of life of some kind (even single-celled organisms) evolving on any given planet, there are almost certainly such a huge number of planets in the known universe that the probability of some life existing somewhere in the universe is well above zero. Of course, the probability that such a life-form will have evolved to a level of technical sophistication equal to or greater than our own is much smaller.
2. But on the other hand, the distances separating our planet from even the nearest possibly earth-like planets are so huge, that it is unlikely that we shall ever receive a visit from any life-forms from outside our solar system. And in addition to the simple distance factor, there is the point (which I have not so far seen expressed publicly, though it may have been) that life-forms on a distant planet would have a choice of a vast number of star-systems that are at equal or lesser distances from their home planet than ours. So even assuming that the extremely low probability event of the evolution of an intelligent and technically sophisticated life-form does occur somewhere, we also have to reckon on the low possibility that such a life-form will select our particular star system to visit.
3. Since probabilities multiply rather than add, the chance of our planet receiving a visit from intelligent life forms from elsewhere in the universe is practically negligible.

No evidence aliens have made contact, says Obama after podcast comments cause frenzy
Former US president clarifies ‘they’re real’ answer that he gave during quick-fire interview round
Maya Yang, Guardian
Mon 16 Feb 2026 04.50 GMT

Hours after Barack Obama caused a frenzy by saying aliens were real on a podcast, the former US president has posted a statement clarifying that he has not seen any evidence of them.

In a conversation with the American podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen over the weekend, Obama appeared to confirm the apparent existence of aliens during a speed round of questioning where the host asks guests quick questions and the guests respond with brief answers.

After he was asked “Are aliens real?”, Obama said: “They’re real but I haven’t seen them.”

He went on: “They’re not being kept at Area 51. There’s no underground facility unless there’s this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president of the United States.”

The comment was picked up by media outlets around the world, with headlines such as “Former US president Barack Obama says aliens are real” and “‘They’re real’: Obama’s shock alien claims”. Time Magazine covered the drama, reporting: “Obama says aliens are real, but they aren’t at Area 51”.

However, following the media frenzy, Obama released a statement on Instagram on Sunday evening.

“I was trying to stick with the spirit of the speed round, but since it’s gotten attention let me clarify. Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there,” he said. “But the distances between solar systems are so great that the chances we’ve been visited by aliens is low, and I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!”

There is a long-running conspiracy theory claiming that the US government is hiding extraterrestrials at Area 51, a highly classified air force site in Nevada.

In 2019, after 1.5 million people signed up to “storm” the site, approximately 150 social media influencers gathered around the airstrip but the event ended anticlimactically, with only a few arrests, and ultimately turned into a music festival.

Declassified documents released in 2013 revealed that the secret airstrip was actually used for aerial testing of US government projects including the U-2 and Oxcart aerial surveillance programs.

“High-altitude testing of the U-2 soon led to an unexpected side-effect – a tremendous increase in reports of unidentified flying objects (UFOs),” the documents said.

Res Ipsa wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 16, 2026 6:04 pm

Hi Ajax,

Given the sheer size of the universe, my guess is that there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. But, because of that size. The laws of physics that prevent faster than light travel, and the absence of evidence of intelligent life in the systems of the closest stars, I don’t think earth has been visited.

Doctor CamNC4Me wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 16, 2026 10:18 pm