Weighing in on recently declassified footage of “unexplained aerial phenomena” – better known as UFOs – US President Trump seemingly cast doubt on the videos’ authenticity, driving some alien enthusiasts up the wall.
The president’s remark came during an Oval Office interview with Reuters this week, which was largely focused on the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic but briefly veered off into the paranormal sightings, prompting some playful skepticism from the commander in chief.
I just wonder if it’s real. That’s a hell of a video.
The three video clips were officially released by the US military on Monday, one of which dates back to 2004, showing a now-infamous ‘Tic Tac’-shaped object darting around over the Pacific Ocean. The second and third videos were filmed in 2015, both also depicting a strange object flying through the night sky. In one of them, astonished Navy airmen can be heard as they tried (and failed) to identify the object, which seemed to defy the laws of physics.
Though the videos had previously circulated online between 2017 and 2018 after they were obtained by a company co-founded by Tom DeLonge – a member of the pop-punk band Blink 182 who’s become a major UFO buff – the Pentagon finally dispelled any questions about their origin by releasing them itself.
Remaining doubtful that the clips prove mankind is not alone in the cosmos, Trump’s response to the footage was seized upon by Twitter’s resident UFOlogists, who soon developed a number of theories and interpretations, some more… elaborate than others.
UFO advocates' reactions to Trump's recent UFO comments infer multiple levels of conspiracy when a simpler explanation is more plausible: Trump probably just saw the videos on Fox News, where they were prominently featured with zany ufologists' commentary. https://t.co/p6kpmFuBC7
Most ufologists agree that the majority of Presidents don’t have a ‘need to know’ when it comes to UFOs. They’re in office for such a relatively short time they prob aren’t told much.
Especially an incompetent dunce like Trump who puts everything on Twitter. https://t.co/LRFQZVpUG4
Do you think the soft disclosure on confirmed UFO sighting from DoD was just a prequel to an upcoming false flag alien invasion on Election Day? Then they can blame @realDonaldTrump for not doing anything about it when we knew we had contact? 😂👽🛸 #UFO
Some netizens deemed the whole episode a “distraction,” part of a shadowy plot to take Americans’ minds off of the raging health and economic crises now gripping the country, with one critic dismissing the supposed UFOs as “high speed drone nonsense.”
They’re trying to distract.
I bet trump was like, “ you got anything crazier than the president telling people to drink bleach?”
Pentagon: climate change? Kim jong Un is dead? UFOS?
As for the implications for “disclosure” – a watchword for alien hunters who believe the government will someday reveal proof of extraterrestrial life – users were divided, some insisting it would never happen, while others were sure it was imminent.
Excerpt: "President Donald Trump on Wednesday responded to footage released by the Pentagon that shows unidentified flying objects (UFO). “I just wonder if it’s real,” Trump told Reuters of the videos. “That’s a hell…." https://t.co/4Kh4zbxlUP
There are Trump fans imagining all sorts of stuff about him and ufo secrets…like he is really in the know and is playing a clever and complicated game to bring disclosure, lol. Disclosure as imagined wont happen b/c govts very dysfunctional nowadays.
— Cosmic Pluralism Studies (@ufo_classes) May 1, 2020
Trump has voiced doubt about UFOs in the past, telling ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in 2019 that he’d attended a “brief meeting” on the subject, but noted it did not turn him into a believer. “People are saying they’re seeing UFOs,” he said, “Do I believe it? Not particularly.”
