Vice President JD Vance said he is obsessed with unidentified flying objects and plans to review the government's most highly classified files on them before leaving office, while describing the phenomena as demonic rather than extraterrestrial.
Vance commented during an interview on conservative commentator Benny Johnson's podcast, which was released Friday. Johnson asked whether the Trump administration would release all UFO files and whether Vance had reviewed any. Vance replied that he had not yet had time, but intended to make it a priority.
"Trust me, anybody who's curious about this, I'm more curious than anybody, and I've got three years of the very tippy top of the classification. I'm gonna get to the bottom of it," Vance said. He added that he had not been able to spend enough time on the issue but was determined to do so. "Trust me, I'm obsessed with this."
Vance told Johnson he had once planned visits to Area 51, the classified military facility in Nevada long tied to alien conspiracy theories, and to New Mexico, but the timing never worked out. He then offered his personal view of the unexplained sightings.
"I don't think they're aliens, I think they're demons anyway, but that's a longer discussion," Vance said. He tied the idea to his Christian faith, noting that major world religions, including Christianity, have long described difficult-to-explain supernatural phenomena as involving both good and evil forces.
President Donald Trump recently urged agencies to release more UAP material, while the federal government's own scientific and national security reviews continue to find no verified evidence of extraterrestrial technology or contact.
The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office's 2024 historical review found no empirical evidence that the U.S. government or private companies had reverse-engineered extraterrestrial technology.
In the Department of War's 2024 reporting cycle, AARO Director Jon Kosloski said the office had found "no verifiable evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity or technology," and officials said hundreds of cases had been resolved as balloons, birds, drones, satellites and aircraft.
NASA's UAP study and public FAQ likewise state that there is no conclusive evidence in the peer-reviewed literature of an extraterrestrial origin of UAPs, and that there is no evidence that UAPs are extraterrestrial.
The comments followed former President Barack Obama's February podcast appearance, in which he said aliens were "real" during a rapid-fire exchange, then clarified the next day that he saw no evidence during his presidency that extraterrestrials had made contact with Earth.
The White House registered the domain names Alien.gov and Aliens.gov earlier this month, prompting speculation about possible disclosures.
Public WHOIS records show that alien.gov and aliens.gov were created on March 17 and list the registrant organization as the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. DefenseScoop reported that the registrations fueled speculation about possible UAP-related disclosures.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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