Trump Raises Alarm Over Missing Scientists

President Donald Trump said Thursday that he called a meeting to address alarming, unconfirmed reports of missing and deceased nuclear scientists, describing the situation as "pretty serious stuff."

"I just left a meeting on that subject," Trump told reporters, underscoring growing concern as questions mount within the scientific community.

The reports center on a number of deaths and disappearances involving experts in nuclear, defense and space-related fields, though officials have yet to confirm any direct links between the cases.

Coverage from outlets such as Newsweek and the Daily Mail has highlighted the 2023 death of veteran NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist Michael David Hicks, noting that no official cause of death was made public.

According to Newsweek, Hicks is one of at least nine American experts in sensitive national security-related fields whose deaths or disappearances have sparked concern.

"I hope it's random, but we're going to know in the next week and a half," Trump said, adding that "some of them were very important people."

The president's remarks come as the White House signals it may take a closer look at the matter. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday the administration is prepared to seek answers.

"I haven't spoken to our relevant agencies about it. I will certainly do that, and we'll get you an answer," Leavitt told a reporter. "If true, of course, that's definitely something I think this government and administration would deem worth looking into."

Meanwhile, Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., said last month that his attempts to obtain answers about the scientists were blocked by some U.S. intelligence agencies.

"The numbers seem very high in these certain areas of research," Burchett told the Mail at the time. "I think we'd better be paying attention, and I don't think we should trust our government."

The congressman said "everybody's talking about the UFO stuff" and pointed out that several of the scientists "have disappeared under suspicious circumstances."

Retired Air Force Gen. William Neil McCasland, 68, who was the commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, vanished on Feb. 27 in New Mexico. McCasland was also associated with the UFO community.

Rocket scientist Monica Reza, 60, who had ties to McCasland, disappeared last June while hiking with two friends in Angeles National Forest.

"I think we ought to be paying attention to it," Burchett told the Mail.

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