WASHINGTON: US Vice President JD Vance vowed on Friday to plumb US government information about unidentified flying objects, adding that in his view, aliens are in fact demons.

“I have not been able to spend enough time on this to really understand it, but I am going to, trust me. I’m obsessed with this,” a laughing Vance told the conservative podcaster Benny Johnson.

“I’ve still got three more years as vice president. I will get to the bottom of the UFO files,” he added. Johnson had asked about President Donald Trump’s order to federal agencies in February to begin “identifying and releasing” government files related to UFOs and aliens.

Trump said he was taking the step “based on the tremendous interest shown,” the same month that former president Barack Obama said publicly that aliens were “real,” though he had not seen them.

Regarding those statements, Trump told reporters that Obama “gave classified information, he is not supposed to be doing that.” Vance for his part told Johnson, “I don’t think they’re aliens. I think they’re demons,” describing this as a Christian understanding of “celestial beings who fly around who do weird things to people.” No evidence has been produced of intelligent life beyond Earth.

Interest in UFOs and and related phenomena has been renewed in recent years as the US government investigated numerous reports of seemingly supernatural aircraft, amid worries that adversaries could be testing highly advanced technologies.

In March 2024, the Pentagon released a report saying it had no proof that unidentified aerial phenomena were alien technology, with many suspicious sightings turning out to be merely weather balloons, spy planes, satellites and other normal activity.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2026