The Trump administration released the first batch of formerly classified government documents on unidentified aerial phenomena, as part of a new White House and War Department effort to increase transparency on an issue that has fascinated the American public for decades.
The documents, videos and photographs were published on a dedicated website as part of a new system called PURSUE. According to the War Department, the materials include unresolved cases, meaning incidents in which the government cannot determine with certainty the nature of the phenomenon that was observed, in part because of a lack of data.
In one of the videos released by the U.S. Department of Defense as part of its UFO files disclosure, a star-shaped object can be seen moving erratically across the sky in sharp zigzags.
Its origin is not explained in the documents. The video is from 2013. pic.twitter.com/P102GCTaQ8
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) May 8, 2026
The administration said the move followed an order by US President Donald Trump to identify, declassify and release government documents related to "extraterrestrial life, anomalous phenomena and unidentified objects." Trump wrote that "previous administrations failed to be transparent on this issue," adding that with the new documents and videos, "the people can decide for themselves, 'what the hell is going on here?'"
War Secretary Pete Hegseth said the documents had "been hidden behind classifications for too long and fueled justified speculation," and that now "it is time for the American people to see this for themselves."
The first release includes more than 160 files from the War Department, the FBI, NASA, the State Department and other bodies, including photographs from Apollo missions, transcripts of astronauts' conversations, military reports and testimonies. Among the materials released were documents from the Apollo 17 mission, in which "very bright particles or fragments" were reported outside the spacecraft, as well as a photograph showing three dots in a triangular formation.
According to the Pentagon, "there is no consensus on the nature of the anomaly," but a new preliminary analysis found that it could be a "physical object."
Some of the documents also describe more recent incidents. One report includes an FBI interview with a person identified as a drone operator, who said that in September 2023 he saw a "linear object" emitting a strong light, which was visible for five to 10 seconds and then disappeared. Other documents mention sightings of objects in areas where US forces were operating, including Iraq, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Greece, along with accounts of objects making sharp turns or unusual movements.
However, the Pentagon website included a disclaimer stating that the descriptions in the reports reflect the subjective interpretation of their authors and do not constitute a final determination of what actually occurred.
The administration stressed that this was only the first stage in a broader disclosure operation, and that additional materials would be published gradually every few weeks after they were located, reviewed and declassified. Supporters of releasing UFO documents in Congress welcomed the move, but experts warned that videos and photographs of this kind are sometimes misinterpreted, especially when they involve advanced military technology, optical phenomena or incomplete information.
Either way, Trump has turned one of the most enduring mysteries into a political and public event, placing the issue in the hands of the public: What are people really seeing in the skies, and are these natural phenomena, advanced technology or something that still cannot be explained?
