US President Donald Trump said USAF pilots told him a mysterious round object flew past an F-22 Raptor at three times its speed, while vowing to investigate claims that a secret government program studying UFOs could exist without the president’s knowledge.
Trump made the comments during an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes.”
When asked whether he (Trump) had seen or heard anything or been told that led him to believe there was more behind UFOs, Trump described himself as “not too much of a believer,” but pointed to conversations with Air Force pilots in the Oval Office.
“These are not people that you would say are conspiracy theorists – they don’t even know what it means – but they’re great, great pilots,” Trump said, before joking about their appearance. “Young, handsome, they have beautiful, nice flat tops. I’d like to have a haircut just like them. They look perfect, like Tom Cruise.”
Trump called the pilots “the real deal” and said they had told him “things that are very strange.”
He described one of those encounters involving an F-22.
“They’re flying an F-22, which is the best there is, the fastest, the best plane that anyone’s ever seen,” Trump said. “And something goes by them at three times their speed. And it’s round. It’s not aerodynamic.”
Why UFO Sightings Persist in the US
Earlier, an explosive Pentagon report said that UFO sightings were just conspiracy theories to cover up classified American military programs.
In July 2022, the Pentagon established the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) to investigate Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs) across air, sea, and space. As part of its study, investigators led by Sean Kirkpatrick, the first director of AARO, reviewed government documents dating back to 1945 and interviewed current and former military officers.
The agency discovered that the US military intentionally planted UFO conspiracy theories, including those linked to Area 51, to hide classified weapons programs during the Cold War. AARO published this report, which The Wall Street Journal first reviewed.
“A tiny Pentagon office had spent months investigating conspiracy theories about secret Washington UFO programs when it uncovered a shocking truth: At least one of those theories had been fueled by the Pentagon itself,” the WSJ report stated.
According to the investigation, these disinformation efforts aimed to conceal the testing of military equipment from people who had unintentionally witnessed classified military tests. The Pentagon disseminated disinformation, including photoshopped images of flying saucers. Investigators still do not know whether these activities were centralized military programs or local efforts.
At least one theory suggests the footage was staged to conceal testing of the F-117 Nighthawk, the US Air Force’s first stealth aircraft. In the 1980s, an Air Force colonel visited a Nevada bar near Area 51 and gave the owner forged photos of flying saucers near the secret government base. Thus, creating a frenzy over UFO sightings in the region.
The colonel, now retired, confessed to the Pentagon that he followed official orders to create a “smokescreen” to hide F-117 testing. This was done because the military believed that hiding its new technology in the avalanche of conspiracy theories about Area 51 was the best way to conceal it from the Soviet Union’s eyes during the Cold War.
As planned, the UFO sightings became the most discussed subjects at the time, and the forged images were put up on the walls of the bar, signaling rising public interest.
The new findings matter because ‘Area 51,’ part of the Nevada Test and Training Range, has been a lightning rod for UFO speculation for decades. It has had the highest per-capita UFO sighting rate in the United States (820.9 per 100,000 residents).
For years, analysts believed that many of these UFO sightings were likely just classified military programs. And they were right. In 2013, for instance, the CIA declassified documents confirming Area 51’s role in testing U-2 spy planes, SR-71 Blackbirds, and other advanced aircraft, explaining some UFO sightings as misidentified military projects.
However, doubts over military cover-ups have been around for only a while.
Kirkpatrick’s team discovered that the government purposefully kept people in the dark about covert military projects. For instance, retired Air Force Captain Robert Salas saw a UFO fly down over Malmstrom Air Force Base missile launch-control facility in 1967.
At the time, all 10 nuclear missiles at the bunker and the electrical equipment were rendered inoperable by what was described as a flashing light. Salas insisted that he saw alien visitors. However, he was told never to discuss it with anyone.
Kirkpatrick’s team found that Salas was never informed that what he observed was a test of an emerging electromagnetic pulse to determine whether American silos could withstand the radiation of atomic weapons and respond in retaliation should the Soviet Union launch an initial attack. Salas was allowed to believe he had spotted aliens.
If this deception was not enough, the Pentagon also involved officers and commanders to lend its lies more credibility. The WSJ report notes, ”For decades, certain new commanders of the Air Force’s most classified programs, as part of their induction briefings, would be handed a piece of paper with a photo of what looked like a flying saucer.”
Many of these commanders were told they were part of a program called “Yankee Blue,” which was designed to reverse-engineer extraterrestrial technology. The unsuspecting officers bought this and signed non-disclosure agreements to keep it confidential.
The officers never learned it was a ruse, and the practice continued unabated until 2023. According to the WSJ report, the defense secretary’s office wrote a memo in 2023 directing the practice to stop immediately; however, the harm had already been done.
No Aliens Or Extraterrestrial Technology Reported
AARO released an extensive report (hailed as historic) in March 2024, stating that there was no evidence that the US officials had encountered aliens. It asserted that most sightings were just misidentified ordinary objects, adding that some cases required further study.
It noted that tests of sophisticated US spy planes and space technologies in the 1950s and 1960s led to a surge in UFO encounters. There was “no evidence” that the US government had come across extraterrestrial life, the investigators wrote, adding that the majority of UFO sightings were ordinary objects from Earth.
“The proliferation of television programs, books, movies, and the vast amount of internet and social media content centered on UAP-related topics most likely has influenced the public conversation on this topic, and reinforced these beliefs within some sections of the population,” it noted.
The investigators emphasized that there is a “particularly persistent narrative” that the government has retrieved spacecraft and extraterrestrial remains while plotting to conceal its alien research endeavors.
In July 2023, former US intelligence officer David Grusch alleged before Congress that the government had operated a multi-decade program to retrieve and reverse-engineer objects of non-human origin. Separately, in November 2024, a whistleblower document submitted to the House Oversight Committee alleged the existence of an unacknowledged program called Immaculate Constellation, purportedly responsible for collecting military imagery of UAPs. The Pentagon’s public position and the allegations in the document should be distinguished.”
Presenting the report, AARO said there are still 50 to 100 UAP sightings every month, highlighting ongoing conjecture about official cover-ups. However, the report made no mention of a potential cover-up.
In June 2025, the Pentagon said that a second volume of AARO’s historical report would include findings concerning potential military pranks and fabricated UFO-related program materials. However, the second volume had not appeared on AARO’s public reports list as of November 2026.
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