How past presidents have handled the alien question

• As Saturday's interview with podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen went viral, Obama clarified that he was answering the question in a laidback manner. Still, he added that, "Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there's life out there."

State of play: Interest in UFOs and aliens has surged in recent years, after former military intelligence officer and whistleblower David Gursch in 2023 claimed the Pentagon and other federal agencies were withholding information about unidentified anomalous phenomenons (UAPs).

• Small groups of bipartisan lawmakers have pushed for greater transparency from the government on the issue, and 56% of Americans believe that aliens exist, per a November YouGov poll.

Here are some of the presidents who have expressed fascination with the prospect of little green men.

Jimmy Carter

• During his 1976 campaign, Carter spoke openly about seeing what he believed was a UFO in Georgia in 1969, with at least 10 other witnesses, an filed a report in the International UFO Bureau in 1973.
• He promised that if elected, he would urge the government to release all information about such sightings to scientists and the public.

Zoom in: In 1977, Carter placed messages in two golden records attached to the Voyager spacecrafts, which are still traveling beyond the solar system.

• The records include 115 images and sounds from Earth, intended to coney a message of peace to potential extraterrestrial civilizations.

Yes, but: Once Carter became president, he said releasing such information could have adverse "defense implications," which he said could threaten national security.

Ronald Reagan

Reagan believed that he encountered a UFO during a plane ride in the 1970s, an account also echoed by his pilot.

• He invoked the idea of extraterrestrial threats as a metaphor for global unity during the Cold War.
• "Perhaps we need some outside, universal threat to recognize this common bond," then-President Reagan said during a UN speech in 1987. "I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world."
• "And yet, I ask you, is not an alien force already among us? What could be more alien to the universal aspirations of our peoples than war and the threat of war?"

Bill Clinton

In a 2014 interview with Jimmy Kimmel, Clinton revealed his longstanding interest in extraterrestrial life, saying he had aides research Area 51 — the top-secret U.S. Air Force base that has fueled decades of UFO speculation — to ensure there was no hidden alien activity there.

• He noted his interest in Roswell, New Mexico, which was the site of a supposed UFO siting in 1947.

What they're saying: "If we were visited someday I wouldn't be surprised," Clinton told Kimmel. "I just hope that it's not like 'Independence Day," he said of the 1996 movie.

• "It may be the only way to unite this increasingly divided world of ours … think about all the differences among people of Earth would seem small if we feel threatened by a space invader."

Obama

In a 2021 interview with James Corden, Obama said he investigated UAPs and joked that his administration did not find a lab studying alien specimens.

• "But what is true — and I'm actually being serious here — is that there's footage and records of objects in the skies that we don't know exactly what they are," he said.
• "We can't explain how they moved, their trajectory. They did not have an easily explainable pattern."

Donald Trump

Less than one week after Obama's comments about the possible existence of alien life, Trump's daughter-in-law Lara Trump told the New York Post that the president has "some speech" he may give about "some sort of extraterrestrial life" at the right time.

• White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt Wednesday told reporters Wednesday that such a speech would be of "great interest," though she said if it exists, she has yet to be briefed on it.

Flashback: Trump during his first term in 2019 told ABC News that he received a briefing on UFOs, but was skeptical about the existence of aliens.

Go deeper: Alien atmospheres are helping scientists search for life