The White House

In July 1952, multiple Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) resembling lights penetrated downtown Washington, D.C., and were reported buzzing the White House and the capital over two consecutive weekends while Harry S. Truman was president, an episode known as the 1952 Washington DC Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) flap.¹ During a later period of Cold War tension, the White House feared that the Soviet Union was considering deploying troops on the Syrian Golan Heights border with Israel.² Separately, according to In Plain Sight, NASA administrator Robert Frosch responded in December 1977 to a White House request by proposing that NASA take no steps to establish a research activity into UFOs or to convene a symposium on the subject, a position set out in the 1977 Robert Frosch letter declining National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) inquiry.³

Harold E. Puthoff is described, in various past capacities, as having reported directly to the White House and the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).⁴ Under Project Stargate, he reported directly to the CIA director and the White House on a regular basis as the programme grew more successful.⁵ John Podesta, a political consultant, served as President Bill Clinton’s Chief of Staff in the White House from 1998 to 2001.⁶ Podesta has said that one of his regrets is not having insisted on disclosure of UAP evidence while he held that post.⁷

Luis Elizondo has described extensive personal experience working with White House and National Security Council programmes on UAP matters. In written testimony dated 2024-11-13, he stated that in his last government position he managed a Special Access Program on behalf of the White House and the National Security Council.⁸ In an earlier posting, his office managed national-level special-access programs directly for the National Security Council and the White House.⁹ He held the clearances required to work directly for both bodies¹⁰ and was certified as a Special Technical Operations officer, holding the same sort of clearance as White House employees who carry the president’s nuclear codes.¹¹ Around 2014, he worked on a programme for the White House and National Security Council based at Guantanamo Bay Cuba.¹² When he sought to brief Secretary of Defense James Mattis, the Secretary of Defense liaison handling the request deferred to a senior White House advisor named Brad Byers and a CIA liaison officer.¹³ Separately, Jay Stratton received requests for briefings from members of the White House National Security Council, who in turn briefed Donald Trump on some level regarding UAP.¹⁴ In his 2024-11-13 testimony, Elizondo stated that the White House, the CIA, NASA, the Pentagon and the US Department of Energy currently play a role in the UAP issue, but that no single entity is in charge.¹⁵

The White House has also featured in accounts of public disclosure efforts. Tom DeLonge has said that within two weeks of his meeting with Robert Weiss, he was introduced to senior military and government figures, including US Air Force generals, intelligence officials, high-ranking NASA bureaucrats and senior White House officials.¹⁶ In late 2011, the Obama administration’s White House responded to a 2011 Change.org petition demanding disclosure of extra-terrestrial contact submitted via Change.org, which had demanded immediate disclosure of the US government’s knowledge of, and communications with, extra-terrestrial beings.¹⁷ According to In Plain Sight, the resulting 2011 White House statement denying extra-terrestrial contact and evidence flatly denied that the US had recovered extra-terrestrial technology.¹⁸ The same source reports that a leaked email dated 2016-09-24 included recommendations from Neil McCasland for a White House memo setting out instructions for divulging information in coordination with the Department of Defense, the Director of National Intelligence and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,¹⁹ and describes a separate memo asserting that no one in Congress, the White House or even any president was cleared to know what it called the “Big Secret”, because they were not on the “Bigot list” either.²⁰

Following the February 2023 unidentified-object shoot-downs known as the 2023 ‘Balloongate’ Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) shoot-down controversy, Karine Jean-Pierre and John Kirby gave a White House press briefing on the incidents on 2023-02-13, according to In Plain Sight.²¹ Ryan Graves warned at the time that the White House should not conflate the low-tech objects that were shot down with the extraordinary, unexplained high-tech advanced objects witnessed by pilots with whom he had served.²²

More recently, the governing board for Avi Loeb’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) science advisory council has been described as including representatives from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the White House, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the intelligence community, who have access to classified material.²³ Eric Burlison has said that if Loeb could not get past such gatekeepers, he would ask the White House and tell President Trump there was a problem.²⁴ Journalist Ross Coulthart has said he knows of people within the White House administration who are considering giving the American public information about what the government knows regarding UAP.²⁵