‘Let me clarify’: Barack Obama says aliens probably real, didn’t meet any while president

Former president Barack Obama put the cat amongst the pigeons over the weekend after apparently casually confirming that we’re not alone in the universe during a podcast interview. Brian Tyler Cohen was interviewing Obama during a quickfire questions round, in which he was asked, “Are aliens real?”

Without a pause, Obama outright said, “they’re real”. The questioning moved on to other topics, but for those watching, this was a huge moment. If anyone is going to know for sure whether aliens are real or not, it’s going to be a two-time American president with access to the highest level of classified documents.

So, did Obama get a secret tour of Area 51 where he met the greys the government keeps securely contained in sub-basement 54B? Doubtless aware of the consternation his remarks caused, Obama took to Instagram to explain that, sadly, he was speaking more generally:

Incredible pic.twitter.com/5TRGxRWbtV

— Adam Wren (@adamwren) February 16, 2026

“I was trying to stick with the spirit of the speed round, but since it’s gotten attention let me clarify. Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there,” he said. “But the distances between solar systems are so great that the chances we’ve been visited by aliens is low, and I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!”

I Want to Believe

It’s worth wondering whether the military would even tell a president they had proof of alien life. After all, that information would be on a strictly need-to-know basis, and the president doesn’t technically need to know until he’s asked to make an executive decision on them.

However, Bill Clinton did apparently ask officials if there was any truth about extra-terrestrials or their craft being stored at Area 51. In comments to Jimmy Kimmel back in 2014, he said he watched 1996’s Independence Day and thought he’d better check:

“There was a great sci-fi movie where there was an alien kept deep under the ground. First I had people go look at the records on Area 51 to make sure there was no alien down there. A lot of our stealth technology is made there. We know that now, but there are no aliens there.”

Then again, he would say that, wouldn’t he? However, unfortunately, the best evidence that the government is not hiding aliens is that there is no way in heck Donald Trump would be able to keep his mouth shut about them.

Frankly, if aliens did decide to make first contact and Donald Trump was put forward as the ambassador to humanity, we deserve whatever Death Star-type fate they have in store for us.