The Trump administration has made public an initial set of declassified documents on unidentified anomalous phenomena, framing the move as a break from decades of government opacity on the subject.
The release, coordinated across several federal agencies including the White House, the director of national intelligence, the Energy Department, NASA, and the FBI, comprises 162 files hosted on a newly launched website with a retro aesthetic — black-and-white military imagery and typewriter-style font accompanying old State Department cables, FBI records, and transcripts from NASA crewed missions.
Among the documents is an FBI account of an interview with a drone pilot who, in September 2023, reported spotting an unusual aerial object. The pilot described a “linear object” emitting light intense enough to reveal distinct bands within it before it disappeared without explanation.
“The object was visible for five to ten seconds and then the light went out and the object vanished,” the FBI interview states.
Another document drawing attention is a NASA photograph from the 1972 Apollo 17 mission depicting three dots arranged in a triangular formation. The Pentagon noted in an accompanying caption that “there is no consensus about the nature of the anomaly,” though a preliminary analysis raised the possibility that it could be a “physical object.”
The Pentagon posted on X that while previous administrations sought to discredit or discourage public inquiry into UAPs, Trump “is focused on providing maximum transparency to the public, who can ultimately make up their own minds about the information contained in these files.” Further documents are expected to be released in batches.
Congress had mandated the declassification effort in 2022, after a number of military personnel came forward with accounts of unexplained aerial encounters. A dedicated office was established that same year; its inaugural report in 2024 catalogued hundreds of new UAP incidents while finding no confirmed evidence of alien technology in U.S. government possession.
Some lawmakers have pressed for the release to go further. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna had demanded 46 UAP videos flagged by whistleblowers in a March letter, and said on social media Friday that those videos are expected in a subsequent release. Rep. Tim Burchett credited Trump for following through on his transparency pledges while cautioning that the full process would unfold over time.
Experts, meanwhile, have warned that UAP footage is frequently misread by those without familiarity with advanced military technology, and the Pentagon’s own 2024 report explicitly rebutted assertions that the government has retrieved or confirmed evidence of extraterrestrial craft.
