Former U.S. President Barack Obama has sparked online conversation after joking that aliens are “real” during a recent podcast appearance — before later clarifying his remarks.
Speaking on The Brian Tyler Cohen Show, Obama was asked directly whether aliens exist.
“They’re real, but I haven’t seen them,” he responded, drawing laughs.
However, the former president later took to Instagram to explain that he was speaking in the spirit of a rapid-fire question segment. He noted that, statistically, given the vastness of the universe, the possibility of life elsewhere is high. But he emphasized that the enormous distances between solar systems make the likelihood of alien visitation extremely low.
“I saw no evidence during my presidency that extra-terrestrials have made contact with us. Really!” he clarified.
No Aliens at Area 51
Obama also dismissed long-standing conspiracy theories surrounding Area 51, the secretive U.S. Air Force facility in Nevada often linked to extraterrestrial speculation.
“There’s no underground facility unless there’s this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president of the United States,” he joked.
When asked what his first question was after assuming office, Obama quipped: “Uh, where are the aliens?”
Past Comments on Extraterrestrial Life
This is not the first time Obama has addressed the topic. During a 2021 appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden, he revealed that upon entering office, he sought briefings on whether aliens were being studied in a secret lab. The answer, he said, was “no.”
Still, Obama acknowledged that U.S. officials continue to investigate aerial phenomena that defy easy explanation.
“There is footage and records of objects in the skies that we don’t know exactly what they are,” he said. “We can’t explain how they moved, their trajectory.
They did not have an easily explainable pattern. I think people still take seriously trying to investigate and figure out what that is.”
In the same podcast interview, Obama also addressed a racist social media video shared by Donald Trump that depicted him and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes. Without mentioning Trump by name, Obama said the “decorum” and “respect for the office” that once guided U.S. officials had diminished.
