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Neil deGrasse Tyson: ‘I expect the alien files will be anticlimactic’

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by Tara Suter - 05/06/26 6:13 PM ET

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by Tara Suter - 05/06/26 6:13 PM ET

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Christopher Smith, Invision via Associated Press file

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson attends the 23rd annual Webby Awards at Cipriani Wall Street in New York, May 13, 2019.

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson predicted that government files on UFOs and unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs) “will be anticlimactic.”

“The impending release of U.S. government files on aliens and U.F.O.s is a good thing, even if it feels like a distraction from other important files we’ve all been waiting to be disclosed. I expect the alien files will be anticlimactic,” Tyson said in an op-ed published Wednesday by The New York Times.

“After a parade of alien insiders and whistle-blowers testified under oath to Congress in 2023, 2024 and 2025, what’s left to learn? Personally, I’d be delighted if the files were accompanied by an actual alien. Alive or dead or undead. Preferably alive. Is that too much to ask for?”

Last month, President Trump teased at a Turning Point USA event in Phoenix that he would order Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to release government files on UFOs and UAPs.

“I recently directed the secretary of War … to begin releasing government files relating to UFOs and unexplained aerial phenomena,” Trump said. “And I figured this was a good crowd because I know you people — you’re really into that, I don’t know if I am.

“This process was well underway, and we’ve found many interesting documents, I must say, and the first releases will begin very, very soon.”

In his op-ed for the Times, Tyson said, “if an authentic alien walked out of the halls of Congress, nobody would ever again have to ask if you ‘believe’ in aliens, just as nobody questions the existence of elephants.”

“An alien of the alien files could become the literal elephant in the room,” he added.

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