Barack Obama: Aliens are real

Barack Obama confirmed his belief in aliens but denied their presence at Area 51. Photo / Getty Images

Barack Obama has said aliens are real – but insisted that none are kept at the top-secret Area 51 military base in the United States.

In a podcast interview, the former President became the first US leader to affirm his belief in the existence of extraterrestrial life.

“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 US.”

In a wide-ranging talk with Brian Taylor Cohen, a left-wing political commentator, Obama also described the Trump administration as a “clown show” and compared the behaviour of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to that of a dictatorship.

Area 51, the air force military base in southern Nevada created during the Cold War, has long been rumoured to house aliens and unidentified flying objects.

Obama was the first president to mention the base publicly. It was only officially acknowledged by the CIA in August 2013, despite having opened in 1955.

In 2019, more than a million people signed up to join an event made in jest by a Facebook user calling for the facility to be stormed and aliens found – although only around 150 people actually travelled to the site in the end.

Previous presidents, including Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, have discussed the possibility of alien life, while Trump has expressed scepticism but added that “anything is possible”.

Obama also said the first question he wanted to ask when he became president was “where are the aliens?”

The former President also hit out at Trump for sharing a racist video that depicted himself and his wife Michelle as monkeys.

The video, shared on Trump’s Truth Social account on February 5, sparked anger across the US, with the White House initially rejecting “fake outrage” only to then blame the post on an error by a staff member and take it down.

Near the end of a one-minute video promoting conspiracy theories about Trump’s 2020 election loss to Joe Biden, the Obamas, the first black US President and First Lady, were shown with their faces on the bodies of monkeys for about one second.

Without naming Trump, Obama responded on Saturday by saying the majority of Americans “find this behaviour deeply troubling”.

He said: “There’s this sort of clown show that’s happening in social media and on television, and what is true is that there doesn’t seem to be any shame about this among people who used to feel like you had to have some sort of decorum and a sense of propriety and respect for the office, right? That’s been lost.”

The former President also criticised Trump’s controversial immigration crackdown in Minnesota, which was brought to an end last week.

He called the behaviour of federal officers – including two fatal shootings – something that “in the past we’ve seen in authoritarian countries and we’ve seen in dictatorships”.

Thousands of federal agents, including ICE officers, carried out weeks of sweeping raids and arrests in what the Trump administration claimed were targeted missions against criminals.

“The rogue behaviour of agents of the federal Government is deeply concerning and dangerous,” Obama said, but added that he had found hope in communities pushing back against the operations.

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