Former President Barack Obama Sets the Record Straight on Claims About Real Aliens

After asserting that the truth is indeed out there, former President Barack Obama elaborated on his remarks concerning extraterrestrial life.

In response to his interview discussing “real” aliens—conducted by political podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen and released on Friday, February 13—Obama, 64, took to Instagram two days later to clarify his statement. “I was trying to keep up with the spirit of [Cohen’s] speed round, but since it’s garnered attention, let me clarify. Statistically, the universe is so expansive that the odds are favorable for life existing out there. However, the distances between solar systems are so vast that the probability of having been visited by aliens is low,” he explained.

Obama, who was the 44th President of the U.S. from 2009 to 2017, concluded, “I saw no proof during my presidency that extraterrestrials had contacted us. Seriously!”

He mentioned during the podcast that he hadn’t “seen” aliens during his time in office. “They’re not being stored at Area 51. There’s no underground facility—unless there’s this massive conspiracy that even the President of the United States is unaware of,” Obama told Cohen, 37. He also shared that the first question he wanted answered upon taking office was about extraterrestrial life: “Where are the aliens?” he recalled asking officials.

Fans flooded Obama’s Instagram post with playful comments about his interview, with one follower quipping, “Which aliens made you clarify this statement 😂,” and another saying, “Blink twice if the aliens made you say this.”

Obama publicly expressed his curiosity about extraterrestrials during an appearance on The Late Late Show in 2021. When conversing with former host James Corden, Obama remarked, “The truth is that when I came into office, I asked, ‘Is there a lab somewhere where we’re keeping alien specimens and spaceships?’ And … they did a bit of research, and the answer was no.”

He also mentioned to Corden, 47, at the time, “What’s true, and I’m being serious here, is that there are records and footage of objects in the sky that we don’t precisely understand. We can’t explain their movement or trajectory. They didn’t follow any discernible pattern. So, I think people are still seriously investigating and trying to understand what that is.”

Obama further stated during a 2021 appearance on The Ezra Klein Show podcast, recorded after his Late Late Show segment, that if aliens were confirmed to exist, the ramifications would significantly change life on Earth.

“There would immediately be debates about whether we need to allocate more funds for weapon systems to protect ourselves,” he noted. “New religions might emerge. Who knows what arguments we’d end up having? We’re quite adept at creating debates among ourselves.”

However, Obama indicated that politics would remain unaffected, stating, “Because … politics is based on the notion that we are merely tiny organisms on this little speck floating in the vastness of space.”