President Donald Trump’s “bonkers” announcement Thursday that he plans to release government files related to alien life raised an immediate red flag for some journalists, and two of whom warned that the announcement was a clear smoke screen to distract the public from something far more nefarious.
Writing on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump announced that he would be ordering federal agencies to “begin the process” of releasing government files “related to alien and extraterrestrial life” and “UFOs.”
The announcement, made amid the United States inching closer to a “full-fledged war” with Iran, immediately caught the attention of journalist Lee Fang, who highlighted a historical CIA document that bore a striking resemblance to current events.
Fang flagged one CIA document in particular: a 1954 telegram from the CIA that was issued amid the CIA’s Operation PBSuccess, a covert effort to overthrow the democratically elected president of Guatemala, Jacobo Árbenz, after his administration had enacted land reforms that cut into the profits of the United Fruit Company, which the CIA described as an “attack" on the American company.
In the telegram, the CIA lists methods of de-emphasizing media coverage of the covert operation, among them being a method involving “flying saucers.”
“If possible, fabricate big human interest story, like flying saucers, birth sextuplets in remote area to take play away,” the CIA telegram reads.
Given the timing of Trump’s UFO announcement – issued as the Trump administration has mobilized a colossal military force near Iran, with an all-out war possibly imminent – journalist and author Max Blumenthal bemoaned what he suggested was Trump’s tactic to draw attention away from the potentially catastrophic consequences of a wider regional war.
It’s happening. Again. https://t.co/NxbcAmhvu9
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) February 20, 2026