{"id":428265,"date":"2026-02-16T06:48:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T06:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/428265\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T06:48:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T06:48:07","slug":"no-evidence-aliens-have-made-contact-says-obama-after-podcast-comments-cause-frenzy-barack-obama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/428265\/","title":{"rendered":"No evidence aliens have made contact, says Obama after podcast comments cause frenzy | Barack Obama"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hours after Barack Obama<\/a> caused a frenzy by saying aliens were real on a podcast, the former US president has posted a statement clarifying that he has not seen any evidence of them.<\/p>\n

In a conversation<\/a> with the American podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen over the weekend, Obama appeared to confirm the apparent existence of aliens during a speed round of questioning where the host asks guests quick questions and the guests respond with brief answers.<\/p>\n

After he was asked \u201cAre aliens real?\u201d, Obama said: \u201cThey\u2019re real but I haven\u2019t seen them.\u201d<\/p>\n

He went on: \u201cThey\u2019re not being kept at Area 51. There\u2019s no underground facility unless there\u2019s this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comment was picked up by media outlets around the world, with headlines such as \u201cFormer US president Barack Obama says aliens are real\u201d<\/a> and \u201c\u2018They\u2019re real\u2019: Obama\u2019s shock alien claims\u201d<\/a>. Time Magazine covered the drama, reporting<\/a>: \u201cObama says aliens are real, but they aren\u2019t at Area 51\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, following the media frenzy, Obama released<\/a> a statement on Instagram on Sunday evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was trying to stick with the spirit of the speed round, but since it\u2019s gotten attention let me clarify. Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there\u2019s life out there,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the distances between solar systems are so great that the chances we\u2019ve been visited by aliens is low, and I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!\u201d<\/p>\n

There is a long-running conspiracy theory claiming that the US government is hiding extraterrestrials at Area 51<\/a>, a highly classified air force site in Nevada.<\/p>\n

In 2019, after 1.5 million people signed up to \u201cstorm\u201d<\/a> the site, approximately 150 social media influencers gathered around the airstrip but the event ended anticlimactically<\/a>, with only a few arrests, and ultimately turned into a music festival.<\/p>\n

Declassified documents released<\/a> in 2013 revealed that the secret airstrip was actually used for aerial testing of US government projects including the U-2 and Oxcart aerial surveillance programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cHigh-altitude testing of the U-2 soon led to an unexpected side-effect \u2013 a tremendous increase in reports of unidentified flying objects (UFOs),\u201d the documents said<\/a>.<\/p>\n