Former US President
Barack Obama on Saturday said that he believes aliens are real, but maintained that he has no idea where they are. Obama made the shocking remark in a podcast hosted by YouTuber Brian Tyler Cowen.

“They’re real, but I haven’t seen them,” Obama told the YouTuber after he asked him about extraterrestrials. However, the former president did not offer any further details on what exactly he meant when he said that the aliens are “real”. No follow-up question on the topic was asked as well. But the proclamation by the former American president cast doubt on several longstanding theories about where they might be.

“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 United States,” Obama said. It is pertinent to note that Area 51 refers to a highly secretive Air Force base in Groom Lake, Nevada. It has long been the subject of interest for conspiracy theorists who believe the government is hiding alien aircraft and bodies on the premises.

Barack Obama on aliens: “They’re real”

“But I haven’t seen them. They’re not being kept at Area 51. There’s no underground facility — unless there’s this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the President of the United States.” pic.twitter.com/c6t0DYxewU

— UAP James (@UAPJames) February 14, 2026

America’s interest in aliens

Interest in potential alien contact with Earth has spiked in recent years after a series of government documents revealed several mysterious aircraft sightings. Leaked radar footage taken by the United States Air Force Reaper drones 13 years ago purportedly shows Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs), the government’s new term for
UFOs, flying over West Asia.

In 2021, the
Pentagon released three unclassified Navy videos that showed bizarre objects tearing through the sky as US servicemen reacted with awe. One UAP was seen rotating against the wind. Interestingly, this is not the first time Obama has commented on the existence of aliens and UFOs.

“When it comes to aliens, there are some things I just can’t tell you on air,” he teased to “The Late Late Show” host James Corden in a 2021 interview. He went on to confirm that the UAP sightings were legitimate and that the government could not explain the aircraft’s origin or their unusual flight patterns. “But what is true — and I’m actually being serious here — is that there’s footage and records of objects in the skies that we don’t know exactly what they are,” he said at that time.