Why would the President need briefings on UFOs?c
What I have perceived so far over years, people can observe things like atmospheric effects or military experiments and tell them to be UFOs of alien, or at least other state's origin.
Mostly it is just a news and conspiracy thing.
Now I read this at a Fastcompany article:
President Trump told ABC News that he had also been briefed about UFOs. While he said he didn’t "particularly" believe in UFOs, he thought the Navy might.
Now is this a real meeting and how comes?
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1Are you asking whether the quote is accurate? If so, it's better suited for Skeptics.SE. If not, please clarify what you want to know specifically. – JJJ 9 hours ago
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1Consider the particular individual being briefed :-( – jamesqf 9 hours ago
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1for the accuracy, I've already asked sceptics. Then, a President briefing on UFOs is rather a scene from a Hollywood movie isn't it? Or does US military indeed believe in UFOs? – J. Doe 9 hours ago
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6I feel like its important to make the clarification that the U in UFO stands for unidentified. It just means "I saw something in the sky and dont know what it is". It doesnt mean aliens. Things get seen or detected all the time that cant be clearly identified. Sometimes its optical illusions or software glitches. Sometimes it unknown aircraft. The military has often tracked and kept files on such events, that doesnt mean they believe in aliens. As for the specific quote in question, it's reliability seems entirely based on how much stock you put in words that come out of Trump's mouth. – Tal 9 hours ago
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2I love this question. I'll drop a bounty on it to encourage backed-up answers once the bounty period opens. There's probably some interesting insights into executive reporting buried in it. – indigochild 8 hours ago
2 Answers
An UFO is an Unidentified Flying Object.
Usually the name is not applied when somebody sees a light prop plane overhead and cannot recognize the specific model or registration letters, but what the name means is that the observer cannot identify it. When a Navy pilot sees something he or she cannot identify, and when air traffic control has no clue either, that is reason for concern. A Navy pilot would be expected to recognize most fast aircraft, at least generally.
The idea that it is extraterrestrial is rather far-fetched.
It could be Air Force, and the Navy isn't cleared for it. Admitting that to the Navy would breach security, so the charade must be maintained.
It could be Russian.
It could be Chinese.
It could belong to some other NATO member which didn't tell the US. (A really disquieting thought for the Pentagon.)
It could be Israeli, or Indian, or Japanese.
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Do you have any knowledge or insight as to why the President would be briefed about a UFO? Is this not something the military apparatus can handle? Is there a particular criterion for when they need to alert the President? – indigochild 8 hours ago
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1well if it's Russian or Chinese etc. over US territory the US military seems to do their job not good enough for the money they get. – J. Doe 6 hours ago
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If he said he doesn't particularly believe in UFO's, it seems unlikely he means he doesn't believe a flying object has never gone unidentified. It sounds as though he really did mean UFO as something of a mater of person belief. – AquaticFire 1 hour ago
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"Usually the name is not applied when somebody sees a light prop plane overhead and cannot recognize the specific model or registration letters" -- sure, usually. – cpast 34 mins ago
Now is this a real meeting and how comes?
It appears to be, Trump said it in this interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos.
Contrary to o.m.'s answer, the question in the interview seems to be about extraterrestrials (though perhaps only jokingly), as that's mentioned in the exchange explicitly. As for the meetings and the reports on UFOs, that's probably (though I haven't seen the reports or been party to the briefings) on unidentified objects, without speculation on extraterrestrials.
In particular, he is asked by George:
Before we go, one of the things you have, as president, is that you have access to all the information, in the world, all the mysteries out there. And I was just struck in the last couple weeks from reading more and more reports of navy pilots seeing lots and lots of UFOs, have you been briefed on that? What do you make of it?
Trump replies (emphasis mine):
I have, I have, I think it's probably. I want them to think whatever they think. They do say, I mean I've seen, and I've read, and I've heard, and I did have one very brief meeting on it. But people are saying they're seeing UFOs. DO I believe it? Not particularly.
Then George asks:
Do you think you'd know if there was evidence of extraterrestrials?
To which Trump replies:
Well, I think my great, our great pilots would know. And some of them really see things that were a little bit different than in the past. So we're going to see, but we'll watch it you'll be the first to know.
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Do you have a reliable source that this briefing took place? – Rupert Morrish 5 hours ago
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1@RupertMorrish only that interview in which the president stated so. – JJJ 5 hours ago
