The former U.S. president landed in hot water over the weekend after commenting on the existence of alien life.

Barack Obama clarifies remark on aliens being real: ‘I saw no evidence during my presidency’

The former U.S. president landed in hot water over the weekend after commenting on the existence of alien life.

By Shania Russell

Shania Russell

Shania Russell is a news writer at *, *with five years of experience. Her work has previously appeared in SlashFilm and Paste Magazine.

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February 16, 2026 3:10 p.m. ET

Barack Obama in 2025; Artwork of an alien. Credit:

Melina Mara - Pool/Getty; Getty

Barack Obama is clearing the air after causing an internet frenzy with some throwaway comments about the existence of aliens.

Over the weekend, the former U.S. president accidentally thrilled conspiracy theorists by participating in a rapid-fire question-and-answer segment that saw him quickly address whether or not extraterrestrials have visited Earth. The subject came up during his recent appearance on the *No Lie* podcast with host Brian Tyler Cohen.

"Are aliens real?" Cohen asked during a quick-fire round of questions, to which Obama replied: "They’re real, but I haven’t seen them."

He then added, "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."

The response was swiftly picked up by media outlets and picked apart online by suspicious social media users. The clip became so widespread that Obama took to Instagram on Sunday to offer some clarity.

Barack Obama and Michelle Obama.

Barack Obama/Instagram

"I was trying to stick with the spirit of the speed round, but since it’s gotten attention let me clarify," he began. "Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there. But the distances between solar systems are so great that the chances we’ve been visited by aliens is low."

He added, "I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!"

Since leaving office in January 2017, Obama is no stranger to being asked questions about UFOs, aliens, and Area 51. In 2021, he joked to late-night host James Corden that he himself was curious about the existence of aliens and made inquiries soon after getting elected.

"When I came into office, I asked, 'Is there a lab somewhere where we're keeping the alien specimens and spaceship?,'" Obama recalled. "And you know, they did a little bit of research, and the answer was no."

After laughing, he added, "What is true, and I'm actually being serious here, is that there are — there's footage and records of objects in the skies, that we don't know exactly what they are. We can't explain how they moved, their trajectory... And so, you know, I think that people still take seriously trying to investigate and figure out what that is."

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The issue has also been addressed by President Donald Trump, who, in 2024, admitted to also pondering alien life.

"Am I a believer? No, I probably, I can’t say I am," Trump said on Logan Paul's *Impaulsive* podcast. "But I have met with people that are serious people that say, there’s some really strange things that they see flying around out there."

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Alien life has been a hot-button topic for years now, fed by American distrust in the federal government. In 2022, the Biden-era Pentagon insisted on the importance of removing shame surrounding reporting "unidentified aerial phenomena" (UAP) because they could represent national security threats. A report from November 2024 revealed more than 750 new UAP sightings were reported between May 2023 and June 2024.

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