Donald Trump Says Barack Obama Disclosed Classified Info with Alien Comments

While taking questions aboard Air Force One this afternoon, President Donald Trump said that former president Barack Obama disclosed classified information in a podcast last weekend when he said that space aliens were "real" but that he had seen no evidence for alien contact and the U.S. government was not holding any space aliens, Trump made the comments in response to questioning from Fox News reporter Peter Doocy:

Peter Doocy: Barack Obama said that aliens are real. Have you seen any evidence of non-human visitors to Earth?

Donald Trump: Well, he gave classified information. He's not supposed to be doing that. You know.

Doocy: So aliens are real?

Donald Trump: Well, I don't know if they're real or not. I can tell you he gave classified information. He's not supposed to be doing that. He made a... he made a big mistake. He took it out of classified information. No, I don't... I don't have an opinion on it. I never talk about it. A lot of people do. A lot of people believe it. Do you believe it, Peter?
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Peter Doocy: Uh, well, if the President can declassify anything that he wants to, so if you want to make an announcement...

Donald Trump: I may get him out of trouble by declassifying.

It is not clear which of Obama's comments supposedly contains allegedly classified information, nor is it clear how Trump can know Obama gave out classified information while also claiming not to know the information.

By evening, Trump appeared to walk back the comments in a Truth Social post when he directed the Department of Defense "to begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs)," implying that there is indeed no secret knowledge of alien life if they have to hunt for the files.​