You might be surprised to learn that some of the most influential leaders, past and present, have had their own encounters or opinions on UFOs or UAPs (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena).
Some of them have even gone public with their statements, while others have kept them secret or dismissed them.
Jimmy Carter
“I am convinced that UFOs exist because I’ve seen one.” Carter reported seeing a bright white light in the sky in 1969, while he was the governor of Georgia. He later filed a report with the International UFO Bureau and said he would make all UFO information public if he became president. However, he was denied access to classified documents on the matter.
Ronald Reagan
“It was a bright white light. We followed it to Bakersfield, and all of a sudden, to our utter amazement, it went straight up into the heavens.” Reagan described his UFO sighting in 1974, when he was flying in a private airplane above California.
He also reportedly told Steven Spielberg after watching E.T. that “there are a number of people in this room who know that everything on that screen is absolutely true.”
George H.W. Bush
“Americans can’t handle the truth.” Bush, who was a former director of the CIA, gave this cryptic answer when he was asked about UFOs at a fundraising event in 1988. He also allegedly told a researcher that he knew “a fair amount” about UFOs, but refused to elaborate.
George W. Bush
“No.” Bush gave this blunt response when he was asked by Jimmy Kimmel if he would tell everyone if he had seen evidence of UFOs. He also joked that revealing such information might “spin you into orbit.”
Barack Obama
“There is footage and records of objects in the skies that we don’t know exactly what they are.”
Obama confirmed that there are unexplained aerial phenomena that have been observed by military personnel and captured by satellites. He said that people still take seriously the investigation and research on these objects.
Dennis Kucinich
“I did [see a UFO].” Kucinich, who ran for president in 2008, acknowledged that he had a UFO sighting at Shirley MacLaine’s house in Washington state. He said it was “enormous” and “triangular” and that it made him feel a connection with the universe.
Winston Churchill
“What does all this stuff about flying saucers amount to? What can it mean? What is the truth?” Churchill wrote these questions in a memo to his air minister in 1952, after a spate of UFO sightings over Britain.
He also ordered an inquiry into the matter, but was reportedly unsatisfied with the results.
Mikhail Gorbachev
“The phenomenon of UFOs does exist, and it must be treated seriously.” Gorbachev made this statement in 1990, after the collapse of the Soviet Union. He also revealed that there were many UFO reports in the USSR, some of which were investigated by the military.
Paul Hellyer
“UFOs are as real as the airplanes flying overhead.” Hellyer, who was the defense minister of Canada from 1963 to 1967, made this declaration in 2005, when he became the first person of cabinet rank in any G8 country to publicly state that UFOs are real and extraterrestrial.
He also claimed that there are at least four different species of aliens visiting Earth.