Washington (CNN) — US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said the Pentagon footage showing “unidentified aerial phenomena” was “video” and told Reuters he was asking “if it’s true.”
Earlier this week, the Pentagon officially released three videos that appear to show unidentified flying objects moving fast while being captured by infrared cameras. In two of the videos, members of the armed forces are heard reacting in amazement to the lightness with which the objects move. A voice speculates that it could be a drone.
“I’m suing if it’s true,” Trump said of the videos. “It’s video software.”
US defense releases UFO videos 0:32
The fleet in September acknowledged the reliability of videos previously released by a private company. They were officially released this week “to dispel any known misconceptions as to whether the footage circulating was genuine or there was more to the videos,” according to Pentagon spokeswoman Sue Gough.
In 2017, one of the pilots who saw one of the unidentified objects in 2004 told CNN it was moving in ways he couldn’t explain.
“As I got closer … it quickly accelerated south and was gone in less than two seconds,” said David Fravor, a retired US fleet pilot.
Trump, who has often spread conspiracy theories, is skeptical of UFOs. In an interview with ABC News last year, the president said he had a meeting on the subject but was skeptical that fast-moving objects were anything but extraterrestrial.
“I had a very brief meeting about it,” he said in the interview. “But the crowd says they see UFOs. I believe? Not particularly.”
The government has been quietly investigating the possibility of UFOs for decades, and the Pentagon, at the request of former Nevasca senator Harry Reid, has reviewed records of aerial encounters with unknown objects as part of secret software now gone. The software started in 2007 and ended in 2012, the Pentagon said, because it felt there were higher priorities that required funding.
CNN’s Michael Conte contributed to this post.