In his recent interview with Joe Rogan, former President Donald Trump answered questions about topics of keen interest to the UAP community: why the JFK files remained classified under his administration, and what his views are on UFOs.
Trump Said ‘Good People’ Asked Him Not to Declassify the JFK Files, So He Didn’t
At about two hours and 42 minutes into the interview, Trump talked with Rogan about the JFK files. Both Trump and Biden’s administrations chose to delay releasing the last of the documents.
It’s been more than 60 years since President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and about 4,700 documents related to his assassination are still classified or redacted. In 1992, the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act was passed in the House and Senate, mandating that all the records should be released by 2017 unless “identifiable harm” to military defense, foreign relations, or law enforcement “outweighs the public interest in disclosure.”
In 2017, the National Archives published about 3,000 sealed JFK files, but Trump’s administration chose to delay the release of the rest, as NBC News reported. (This was after Trump boasted that he would release all of them.) Then in 2021, Biden’s administration made the same decision after releasing about 1,000 more files, NBC News reported.
The UFO community is particularly interested in the JFK files’ declassification because the UAPDA has follows the same model for declassifying UAPs.
Comprehensive 2025 NDAA UAP Guide: List of UAPDA & UFO Amendments Left In & Out
At about 2:43:07 into his interview with Rogan, Trump said that he “partially” opened the JFK files.
“So I opened them up partially,” Trump said at about 2:43:07. “I was met with good people … People that were well-meaning. Mike Pompeo was one of them. He’s a good person. They called me, they said, ‘Sir, would rather have you not.'”
He continued around 2:43:32, saying: “So they called me, a lot of good people called me, people that … you would find reasonable… And they asked me not to do it. So I said, ‘Well, we’ll close it for another time.’ But if I win I’m going to open them up.”
Because Trump had promised to release all the files in his first term, it’s not clear if his promise to release them in a second term is authentic or not. When asked at about 2:43:50 into the interview why he didn’t declassify the files, he said it had to do with some people “still living.” He added at 2:45:56: ” And there could be some national Security reason that … I don’t have to necessarily know about. But some very good talented people asked me not to do it.”
They talked about the topic some more, with Trump mostly repeating the same points.
Trump Said Pilots Saw a ‘Round Ball’ Going ‘Four Times Faster Than an F22’
Later, at about two hours and 45 minutes into the interview, Rogan broached the UFO topic. Trump emphasized that UFOs have “never been my thing” and he’s “never been a believer.” However, he does believe something’s up after interviewing some pilots who saw technology they couldn’t explain.
At 2:46:18 he said: “I interviewed jet pilots that say they saw something… (They) were solid people, perfect. And they said, we saw things, sir, that were very strange. Like a round ball but it wasn’t a comet or a meteor. It was something and it was going four times faster than an F22, which is a very fast plane… And it was round, which isn’t in theory a great shape…”
When Rogan asked if Trump believes aliens could be real, Trump said he has no reason not to believe it, considering how many planets there are.
“There’s no reason not to think that Mars and all these planets don’t have life…” he said. After Rogan disagreed on Mars, Trump added, “Well maybe it’s life that we don’t know…”
Then he returned to the pilots who talked to him at about 2:47:46, saying: “But I did interview, let’s say three or four guys… Solid beautiful people. They said, ‘Sir there’s something there…’ They’re not conspiracy guys.”
Stephanie Dwilson is a licensed attorney and has a master's in science in science and technology journalism. She's known for her thorough, accurate reporting and commitment to journalistic integrity in all her work. You can reach her at writerdube@gmail.com.
