President Trump was interviewed on the coronavirus crisis by Reuters on Wednesday. But he also offered an interesting quick take on the Navy’s official release this week of three videos showing aviators intercepting UFOs in 2004 and 2015.
“I just wonder if it’s real. That’s a hell of a video,” Trump said.
That might seem like a lighthearted comment designed to shut down further conversation. And it is. But Trump’s particular choice of words should pique our curiosity for other reasons.
First, he is reinforcing the fact that the U.S. military and intelligence communities cannot explain what these objects are. That is to say, the three objects in the three videos originally released in 2017 and only now officially by the Navy. Trump and certain members of the House and Senate Armed Services and Intelligence committees have been briefed on what is known about the objects. But those briefings center on the objects’ indicated capability and behavior patterns, not their origin.
Still, Trump’s doubts as to whether the objects in the videos are “even real” is noteworthy. Those words match up with the argument propagated by some, that these objects might not actually be real in the first place. Some have suggested these objects are actually the products of highly advanced and top-secret electronic or psychological warfare capabilities or that they’re a combination of both. Such capabilities involve tricking personnel and platforms as to the location and operational activity of enemy forces. The United States and China have invested heavily in trying to weaponize these capabilities.
So, are these objects really sensory fictions? The government’s assessment is that this is highly unlikely, although not impossible. The multisensor platform data collected and the witness of multiple pilots in both the 2004 and 2015 incidents make the deception-based overload theory less credible. Moreover, the technical capabilities required to achieve such a disruption would be far in advance of even the most advanced current capabilities, let alone 2004 capabilities. Were these unidentified objects not real, they would have had to trick multiple independent radar, sonar, gun camera, and AWACS systems, as well as the flight crews’ highly trained eyeballs.
In flowing context, Trump’s comments should be seen to reinforce the government assessment that these are vehicles and that they do not belong to China, Russia, or Elon Musk. The U.S. has an extremely strong understanding of the most cutting edge air-frame, missile, and hypersonics research and development being conducted in China and Russia, so that boosts the possibility that the three objects are truly “unidentified” and that if they belong to a foreign state or nonstate power, it must be one of which we know nothing. Is there a Thunderbirds-style team on an island somewhere, loaded up with supercraft? Maybe, but I think not. Also, wouldn’t they be using their craft to serve humanity or some nefarious interest rather than flying around nuclear sites?
A final point to note here is that on this issue, at least, Trump is being very loyal to the interests of the so-called deep state he often attacks. After all, while the military has some legitimate reasons (primarily related to nuclear weapons/detection security) for keeping UFO research quiet, it could provide more information to the public without jeopardizing national security. Trump presents himself as a man of the people, but on this issue, he is very much following in the secretive tradition of former presidents.
