Trump’s PURSUE Portal Opens 161 UAP Files—Skeptics Say Show Me the Alien
The Department of War has officially launched PURSUE — the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters — posting 161 declassified files...
The Department of War has officially launched PURSUE — the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters — posting 161 declassified files to a public portal at WAR.GOV/UFO. The release follows President Donald J. Trump’s February directive to declassify government records related to unidentified anomalous phenomena. The first tranche includes documents from the Department of War, State Department, NASA, and FBI, with additional files promised on a rolling basis every few weeks.
According to the official press release, the interagency effort spans the White House, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Department of Energy, AARO, NASA, the FBI, and additional intelligence community components. The portal is topped with scrolling photographs of black-and-white anomalies and features downloadable documents — including eyewitness accounts from federal employees who observed orbs in the dusk sky on two separate days in the Western U.S., and images capturing anomalies from the Apollo 17 and Apollo 12 moon missions, according to Axios.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said the files, hidden behind classifications, have long fueled justified speculation — and it is time the American people see it for themselves. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said today’s release is the first in what will be an ongoing joint declassification and release effort. FBI Director Kash Patel said the American people now have unfettered access to declassified government files on UAP — a level of transparency that no prior administration has delivered.
The Department of War acknowledged that while all files have been reviewed for security purposes, many of the materials have not yet been analyzed for resolution of any anomalies. The records archived on PURSUE are unresolved cases — meaning the government is unable to make a definitive determination on the nature of the observed phenomena, often due to insufficient data.
The Skeptics Have Receipts
Sean Kirkpatrick, the physicist and former career intelligence officer who led AARO from July 2022 to December 2023, has been blunt about what the government actually holds. In an Associated Press interview, Kirkpatrick described Trump’s UAP promises as a distraction for the administration. He told CBS News that people expecting to see evidence of alien life may be disappointed, and that there are going to be unsatisfied people who will continue to cry conspiracy. Nothing would have made me happier in that job but to have discovered alien technology and rolled it out, Kirkpatrick said — but that proof was not there.
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, writing in a New York Times op-ed, said the impending release of government files on aliens and UFOs is a good thing, even if it feels like a distraction from other important files we have all been waiting to be disclosed. He said he expects the files will be anticlimactic. After a parade of alien insiders and whistleblowers testified under oath to Congress in 2023, 2024, and 2025, Tyson asked: what is left to learn?
Former President Barack Obama weighed in during a CBS Late Show appearance with Stephen Colbert, saying the government is terrible at keeping secrets. If aliens were real and under U.S. government control, he argued, some guard would have taken a selfie with one of the aliens and sent it to his girlfriend to impress her, IBTimes UK reported.
Congress Is Not Impressed Either
The launch comes amid growing congressional frustration with the Pentagon’s transparency. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, who chairs the House Oversight Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, sent a letter to Hegseth ordering the Department of War to hand over 46 specific UAP video clips by April 14. That deadline passed with no public confirmation the videos were delivered, according to IBTimes UK. Luna described AARO’s responses as less than adequate and raised concerns about UAP incidents near restricted military airspace.
The House Oversight Committee held a September 2025 hearing where whistleblowers informed the task force that AARO possesses additional video records of potential UAP sightings beyond what has been publicly disclosed. The requested files include recordings described as UAP formation sightings, objects observed near airports, and footage captured by military aircraft over the Persian Gulf and Syria.
UFO whistleblower David Grusch, a former Air Force intelligence officer, said on May 5 that forces within the government are still working to cover up files before their release, but that he has confidence disclosure will escalate in the next 60 to 90 days, IBTimes UK reported. Grusch said the real focus should be on physical materials rather than videos.
The Broader Pattern
Trump’s UAP push follows a familiar playbook. In the first week of his return to office, he ordered the release of records related to the assassinations of JFK, RFK, and Martin Luther King Jr. — disclosures that, according to the AP via PBS NewsHour, revealed little beyond what was already known. Kirkpatrick, who has seen the records, believes there are no bombshell revelations to be found. AARO’s own historical reports — including analysis of alleged alien metallic specimens that turned out to be ordinary aluminum alloys — paint a consistent picture of prosaic explanations for extraordinary claims.
Christopher Mellon, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for intelligence, offered a more measured take to DefenseScoop, saying this might be a consequential moment, but the impact will depend on the follow-through. AARO’s caseload now exceeds 2,000 incidents, according to the Pentagon, with approximately 1,000 reports lacking sufficient data for analysis.
The Pentagon’s expanding AI and defense partnerships, including recent deals with OpenAI, Nvidia, and Alphabet and a new national security review of AI models, add another dimension: as the military increasingly relies on AI-powered threat detection, the line between genuine anomalous phenomena and algorithmic misidentification blurs. AARO has already documented how Starlink satellite flaring and parallax effects can generate UAP reports. More data from PURSUE may not mean more clarity — it may just mean more noise.
PURSUE is live. The files are real. Whether 161 documents — or the thousands that follow — will change what anyone believes about what is out there is the only question that matters. The skeptics have a strong case. The believers are just getting started.
