US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he would direct federal agencies to begin releasing government files related to aliens and unidentified flying objects, pointing to what he described as strong public interest in the issue.

In a social media post, Trump said he would order Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth and other agencies to release the information, calling the matter "extremely interesting and important."

Earlier in the day, Trump, without providing evidence, accused former president Barack Obama of improperly disclosing classified information when discussing aliens publicly, saying Obama "made a big mistake."

"He took it out of classified information ... He's not supposed to be doing that," Trump told reporters while traveling to Georgia.

During an interview with podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen released on Saturday, Obama was asked if aliens were 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 said.

Area 51 is a classified Air Force facility in Nevada that fringe theorists have speculated holds alien bodies and a crashed spaceship. CIA archives released in 2013 said it was a test site for top-secret spy planes.

Pentagon investigations

There was no indication in Obama's remarks that the former president released classified information. Obama's office did not respond to a request for comment.

"I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!" Obama said in an Instagram post on Sunday.

In the post, Obama explained his belief that aliens exist by saying the statistical odds of life beyond Earth were high because the universe is so vast. He added that the chances of extraterrestrial life visiting Earth were low given the distance.

Following his comments on Obama, Trump added that he had not seen evidence that aliens exist, saying, "I don't know if they're real or not."

In recent years, the Pentagon has investigated reports of UFOs, and senior military leaders said in 2022 they found no evidence to suggest that aliens had visited Earth or crash-landed here.

A 2024 Pentagon report said US government investigations since the end of World War Two had found no evidence of extraterrestrial technology and most sightings were misidentified ordinary objects and phenomena.

The website of the National Archives and Records Administration says it has records related to UFOs across numerous collections.