Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has said she believes extraterrestrial aliens may exist and acknowledges that the U.S. government holds classified information on the subject.
She pledged to share disclosures from ongoing investigations into UFOs.
Meanwhile, public interest in mysterious sightings shows no signs of waning.
In an interview on the New York Post’s “Pod Force One” podcast released on Aug. 6, Gabbard acknowledged that extraterrestrial life is possible.
“I have my own views and opinions,” she told host Miranda Devine when asked whether aliens could exist. “In this role, I have to be careful with what I share.”
When pressed for a clear answer on whether she thought aliens exist, Gabbard replied, “Yes.”
While stressing that she had no new revelations, Gabbard pledged transparency when the intelligence community has findings it can disclose.
“We’re continuing to look for the truth and share that truth with the American people,” she said.
Gabbard, who oversees 18 intelligence agencies, said she still has “a lot of questions” about a wave of drone sightings over New Jersey in 2024 that sparked public anxiety and prompted federal investigations.
“I’ve heard what the public official line is,” Gabbard said, referencing government statements that the objects were a mix of lawful personal, professional, and government aircraft.
“I just personally still have a lot of questions that are unanswered, because it wasn’t just New Jersey. It was happening in different parts of the country.”
The remarks by Gabbard come amid renewed discussion of UFOs at the highest levels of government.
President Donald Trump addressed the subject in several podcast appearances during the 2024 presidential campaign. On Lex Fridman’s podcast, Trump said he would consider pushing the Pentagon to release additional UFO footage that many enthusiasts believe is still classified.
“Oh yeah, sure, I’ll do that. I would do that. I’d love to do that,” Trump said, noting public pressure to disclose records similar to that surrounding the John F. Kennedy assassination.
Appearing on Logan Paul’s “Impaulsive” podcast in June 2025, Trump struck a skeptical but open tone.
“Am I a believer? No, I can’t say I am,” he said. “But I have met with people, serious people, that say there’s some really strange things flying around out there.”
He said that given the size of the universe, “why wouldn’t there be something, somebody?”
Vice President JD Vance has voiced fascination with the subject, telling the “Ruthless” podcast last week that he is “obsessed” with mysterious UFO videos and eager to learn more.
“What’s actually going on? What were those videos all about? What’s actually happening?” Vance said, joking that part of his upcoming congressional recess would be spent trying to “dive to the bottom of the whole UFO thing” and quipping that he might take the show’s hosts to Area 51 once he gets “to the bottom of it.”
Public appetite for UFO disclosures remains high as the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) continues to investigate more than 1,600 reports of “unidentified aerial phenomena,” a term that has largely replaced “unidentified flying objects.”
At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in November 2024, AARO’s new director, Jon T. Kosloski, detailed cases the military believes it has solved—such as the widely circulated 2016 “GOFAST” video, now assessed to show a relatively slow-moving object at 13,000 feet—as well as incidents that defy explanation.
In one unsolved case, two government contractors reported seeing a stationary metallic cylinder “the size of a commercial airplane” that mysteriously disappeared after 20 seconds. In another, a law enforcement officer described a black orb that tilted upward and shot vertically into the sky without a sound, later emitting bright red and blue lights that illuminated his vehicle.
Kosloski said that although most sightings likely involve birds, balloons, or conventional drones, there are “some very anomalous objects—it’s just the nature of resolution.”
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