Former President Barack Obama raised eyebrows over the weekend after telling podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen that aliens are “real,” though he quickly added that he has not personally seen them.
During a so called lightning round of questions, Cohen asked Obama directly whether extraterrestrials exist. Obama responded, “They’re real, but I haven’t seen them, and they’re not being kept in Area 51.” He added, “There’s no underground facility, unless there’s this enormous conspiracy, and they hid it from the President of the United States.”
That last line was delivered with humor, but it underscores how slippery this topic has become in modern politics. Presidents are now expected to weigh in on UFO footage and alien rumors as casually as they discuss tax policy.
To be fair, Obama has addressed the issue before. In 2021, he acknowledged the existence of what are now called unidentified aerial phenomena, previously known as UFOs. Appearing on CBS’s The Late Late Show with James Corden, he said, “What is true, and I’m actually being serious here, is that there is footage and records of objects in the skies that we don’t know exactly what they are.”
He went on to say, “We can’t explain how they move, their trajectory. They did not have an easily explainable pattern. And so, I think that people still take seriously trying to investigate and figure out what that is.”
That is a far cry from confirming little green men. It is an acknowledgment that the U.S. government has recorded aerial phenomena it cannot immediately explain. That does not automatically mean extraterrestrials. It could mean advanced foreign technology, sensor anomalies, or classified projects.
Back in 2021, Obama was more cautious about outright alien claims. “When it comes to aliens, there are some things I just can’t tell you on air,” he joked at the time. He also recounted asking officials when he first took office whether there was “the lab somewhere where we’re keeping the alien specimens and spaceships.” The answer, he said, was no.
So what changed? Not much, except perhaps tone. Saying “they’re real” in a podcast setting can mean many things. It can be tongue in cheek. It can refer broadly to the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe, something many scientists consider statistically plausible.
What it does not amount to is official confirmation of extraterrestrials visiting Earth.
Still, when a former president casually tosses around the phrase “they’re real,” it feeds public fascination. In an era of declassified footage and government reports about unexplained aerial objects, speculation thrives.
For now, Obama’s remarks appear more playful than revelatory. But in a political climate where trust in institutions is fragile, even jokes about hidden facilities and alien cover ups take on a life of their own.
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