Former President Barack Obama said over the weekend that aliens are “real,” though he admitted he “hasn’t seen them.”

Obama confirmed the existence of extraterrestrial life during an interview with podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen that aired on Saturday. At the beginning of a “lightning round” of questions, Cohen asked the president directly about the existence of aliens.

“They’re real, but I haven’t seen them, and they’re not being kept in” Area 51, the former president said. “There’s no underground facility, unless there’s this enormous conspiracy, and they hid it from the President of the United States.”

Obama also jokingly said that the question on extraterrestrial life was the first question he wanted answered when he became president.

Saturday’s interview is not the first time Obama has spoken about issues related to extraterrestrials. In 2021, the former president confirmed the existence of UFOs, or unidentified flying objects. UFOs are commonly associated with aliens, though they could have more earthly explanations as well.

“What is true, and I’m actually being serious here, is that there is footage and records of objects in the skies that we don’t know exactly what they are,” he said during an appearance on CBS’ “The Late Late Show with James Corden.”

“We can’t explain how they move, their trajectory,” he said. “They did not have an easily explainable pattern. And so, I think that people still take seriously trying to investigate and figure out what that is.”

Obama also addressed the issue of aliens in 2021, though at the time he declined to say whether or not they exist.

“When it comes to aliens, there are some things I just can’t tell you on air,” Obama said at the time.

“Look, the truth is that when I came into office, I asked,” he continued. “I was like, ‘All right, is there the lab somewhere where we’re keeping the alien specimens and spaceships?’”

“They did a little bit of research … and the answer was, ‘no,’” he said.

Border Czar Tom Homan responded forcefully on Sunday to questions about Department of Homeland Security funding, arguing that Democrat demands on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are unreasonable.

Appearing on CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” Homan was asked about which demands from the Democrats he and the Trump administration would consider as the White House and Congress battle over DHS funding.

“Among other things, they’d like to require immigration agents to show identification, wear body cameras, take off their masks, stop racial profiling, and seek judicial warrants to enter private property. Which, if any, of those asks is the president, are you willing to consider adopting?” host Ed O’Keefe asked.

After noting that he’s not part of the ongoing negotiations, Homan shut down the notion that ICE is racially profiling and argued that many of the requests are non-starters.

“When they say, ‘stop racial profiling,’ that’s just not occurring. ICE will detain, briefly detain, and question somebody based on reasonable suspicion — [it] has nothing to do with racial profiling,” Homan said.

“As far as a mask … I don’t like the masks either, but because [assaults] against ICE officers are up over 1,500%, and threats are up over 8,000%, these men and women have to protect themselves,” the border czar added.

Homan further noted that while immigration agents do identify which agency they’re from, they simply don’t provide their names.

“Why don’t they talk about maybe passing legislation to make it illegal to dox agents or something like that,” Homan said. “But the masks right now are for officer safety reasons.”

O’Keefe pressed, noting that law enforcement elsewhere don’t wear masks.

“You know, cops go out every day, everywhere across the country,” he said, asking why ICE has to “wear all that and protect themselves when there are others out there wearing badges that don’t have to do that?”

Homan pushed back strongly.

“I don’t know of another law enforcement agency in the country that has an 8,000% increase in threats. Just yesterday, the director of ICE, his wife was filmed walking to work, his home address has been doxed, his kids have been doxed and filmed,” Homan said. “And look, let’s remember why we’re here. We’re here because the last four years, over ten million illegal aliens crossed that border, released into this country unvetted. ICE has to do a law enforcement response to deal with the last four years of open borders, where they claim the border was secure every day and it wasn’t.”

Trump administration border czar Tom Homan says some demands by congressional Democrats to reopen the Department of Homeland Security are “unreasonable.”

“They want to say, ‘stop racial profiling.’ That’s just not occurring,” Homan says. He adds “I don’t like the masks” on ICE… pic.twitter.com/pT5xnHaWf1

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) February 15, 2026