WASHINGTON — This week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth found himself in the spotlight as he addressed inquiries about his new task: reviewing and potentially releasing government documents concerning the existence of extraterrestrial life.

In a video clip shared on C-SPAN’s X account, a reporter asked Hegseth, “Did you ever imagine you would be the Secretary of Defense responsible for possibly declassifying information on extraterrestrial life?”

Hegseth, with a smile, candidly replied, “I did not have that on my bingo card at all.”

Recently, President Donald Trump issued a directive to Hegseth and other federal agencies to “initiate the process of identifying and releasing government files related to aliens, extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs), along with any other pertinent information regarding these complex yet fascinating issues.”

The president’s request came on Thursday, and by Monday, Hegseth confirmed that efforts to fulfill this directive were already underway.

“We’re digging in,” he said. “We’re going to be in full compliance with that executive order, eager to provide that for the president. There will be more coming on that as far as the process of what we’ll do.” 

There is no clear timeline on how long it will take federal officials to release the relevant files, but Hegseth seemed enthusiastic about finding out about the mystery himself. 

“Do you think aliens exist?” he was asked. “We’ll see,” he replied. “I get to do the review and find out along with you.” 

Interest in the topic has surged after former President Barack Obama recently suggested in a YouTube podcast interview with Brian Taylor Cohen that aliens were real. 

“They’re real,” he told Cohen. “But I haven’t seen them, and they’re not being kept in Area 51.”

The former president later released a statement on Instagram, appearing to clarify what he meant by his comments that have since gone viral.

“I was trying to stick with the spirit of the speed round, but since it’s gotten attention let me clarify. Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there. But the distances between solar systems are so great that the chances we’ve been visited by aliens is low, and I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!”

Secrecy around Area 51, a top-secret Cold War test site in the Nevada desert, has long fueled conspiracy theories among UFO enthusiasts.

In 2013, the CIA acknowledged the existence of the site but not UFO crashes, extraterrestrials or staged moon landings.

Declassified documents referred to the 8,000-square-mile installation by name after decades of U.S. government officials refusing to acknowledge it.

The base has been a testing ground for a host of top-secret aircraft, including the U-2 in the 1950s and later the B-2 stealth bomber.

Public interest in unidentified flying objects and the possibility of the government hiding secrets of extraterrestrial life remerged in the public consciousness after a group of former Pentagon and government officials leaked Navy videos of unknown objects to The New York Times and Politico in 2017. 

The renewed scrutiny prompted Congress to hold the first hearings on UFOs in 50 years in May 2022, though officials said that the objects, which appeared to be green triangles floating above a Navy ship, were likely drones.

Since then the Pentagon has promised more transparency on the topic. In July 2022 it created the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office, or AARO, which was intended to be a central place to collect reports of all military UFO encounters, taking over from a department task force.

Curiosity about the government’s possible knowledge about extraterrestrial life exploded again in the summer of 2023, when a former Air Force intelligence officer testified to Congress. 

Retired Maj. David Grusch told the lawmakers at the time that U.S. is concealing a longstanding program that retrieves and reverse engineers unidentified flying objects. 

When asked whether the U.S. government had information about extraterrestrial life, Grusch said the U.S. likely has been aware of “non-human” activity since the 1930s.

The Pentagon readily denied Grusch’s claims of a coverup, which ended up further fueling questions about extraterrestrials and the like. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.