Aliens

Plus: being trolled, Waymo traffic jam in San Francisco, and the details of Trump's crackdown on investor-owned housing

I want to believe. In a podcast interview last week, former President Barack Obama said that he believes aliens are real, a shocking statement that interviewer Brian Tyler Cohen maddeningly did not follow up on.

Obama later clarified that he was making a general statement about his belief in the probability of the existence of extraterrestrial life in our vast universe, not that he'd seen flying saucers at Area 51.

Nevertheless, the former president's remarks generated a lot of "um…what?" reactions on social media.

Not to be outdone by his first-term predecessor, President Donald Trump said on Truth Social that he would be ordering the release of government documents related to extraterrestrials, UFOs, and more.

Based on the tremendous interest shown, I will be directing the Secretary of War, and other relevant Departments and Agencies, to begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and…

— Commentary: Trump Truth Social Posts On X (@TrumpTruthOnX) February 20, 2026

A troll, a distraction, or an excuse to arrest Obama? After tariffs and flashing, unconstitutional military actions, there's nothing Trump and his administration love better than promising the release of troves of heretofore secret documents, only to fail to procure the really good stuff.

That's obviously the case with the Epstein files, which, admittedly, Trump himself was never super keen on releasing, even though many of his supporters and key administration officials were.

We've also been down this road when he said he'd order the release of John F. Kennedy files in his first term, before backtracking on that promise. Eventually, he made good on his promise in his second term, although the released documents produced few "bombshells."

The Trump administration has loudly declared a lab leak in Wuhan to be the true origin of COVID-19, while failing to release additional documentation and security assessments that could shed more light on the U.S. government's role in funding dangerous gain-of-function research in Wuhan.

All that's to say, Trump promising the release of UFO files is par for the course. Don't be surprised if he ends up not following through on any substantive document dump.

Maybe it's all just a big troll. But since we live in more paranoid times, one can imagine a couple more strategic/sinister explanations for why the president is talking about classified UFO documents now.

Currently, the U.S. is engaged in a massive buildup of military forces in the Middle East in what increasingly appears to be a prelude to a giant air war with Iran.

Is all this UFO chatter just a way to distract people before we plunge into yet another forever war, a la The Whitest Kids You Know sketch?

"Just a thought, more of a shot in the dark, but uh we wouldn't happen to be invading Iran today would we?" https://t.co/CcYVRiBbmf pic.twitter.com/H4n5NOqQo8

— Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania (@LPPAorg) February 20, 2026

Or maybe Trump is talking about UFOs because he wants an excuse to prosecute Obama. He recently told Fox News' Peter Doocy that Obama made a "big mistake" by releasing classified documents on aliens and UFOs.

TRUMP tells @pdoocy OBAMA "gave classified information" on UFO's and aliens.

"He's not supposed to be doing that. But I don't know if they're real or not… I can tell you he gave classified information. He made a big mistake."

— Aishah Hasnie (@aishahhasnie) February 19, 2026

On the other hand, Trump needs no real strategic rationale to stir the pot by saying unhinged things. Maybe the reason he promised to release UFO files is that it's Thursday.

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Scenes from San Francisco: You can't look down a street in S.F. anymore without seeing a driverless Waymo, so much so that I actually saw a little Waymo traffic jam yesterday.

It's a little hard to tell from the picture, but the front Waymo has stopped in the middle of the street for no explicable reason. Behind it, two more Waymos are patiently waiting for it to get moving. Eventually, they follow the other human-piloted cars and drive around the immobile vehicle.

Christian Britschgi

Impressive as these vehicles are, clearly it's going to take a little while to work out all the kinks. In the meantime, we might want to program them to beep their horns and swear at the other Waymos.

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QUICK LINKS

• We finally have the details of Trump's restrictions on large investor ownership of single-family homes. The biggest immediate takeaway is that the restrictions are intended to apply to entities owning 100 or more homes, which is a much lower threshold than some were expecting. "Institutional investors" are normally defined as those owning 1,000 or more homes.

There it is: Details on Trump's proposed ban on large investors. Highlights:

1) Defined as 100+ homes which means the ban impacts far more regional investors than institutions.

2) Exempts build to rent construction and homes needy heavy repair (which most individual buyers… pic.twitter.com/NNj39TOIYg

— Jay Parsons (@jayparsons) February 20, 2026

• How bad is censorship in the United Kingdom? They're starting to censor the ads making fun of censorship.

The United Kingdom is escalating its censorship and mass surveillance. When Mullvad tried to criticise this with the TV ad "And Then?", it was banned on British television. pic.twitter.com/qJG0tt7U41

— Mullvad.net (@mullvadnet) February 18, 2026

• The number of families and unaccompanied minors crossing the U.S. southern border has dropped to basically zero in Trump's second term.

Now that asylum/protection at the US-Mexico border is gone (illegal but true), and now that suffering abuse inside the US is probable, only 627 child/family migrants entered Border Patrol custody in January—the fewest for which we have records (since October 2011). pic.twitter.com/asDHf4N3j6

— Adam Isacson (@adam_wola) February 20, 2026

• More government lies, courtesy of the Department of Homeland Security.

From CNN's @michaeldamianw @alex_leedsmatts: "The Department of Homeland Security admitted that its website featuring what it calls the 'worst of the worst' arrested immigrants was rife with errors and changed the site this week after receiving questions from CNN about it."…

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) February 19, 2026

• Speaking of, people should read C.J. Ciaramella's article saying bon voyage to one of the biggest liars of them all, DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin.
• Virginia's new governor just got the worst job in politics.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger will deliver Democratic response to Trump's State of the Union address.

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 19, 2026

• Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly Prince Andrew, had his home searched by police after his arrest for suspicion of misconduct in public office, a charge related to his connections to Jeffrey Epstein. Read Matthew Petti's reporting on the disgraced royal's connections to Epstein here and here.