White House Slammed Over 'Distraction' UFO File Release as Critics Call It 'Anything To Distract'

The US Department of War released its sixth batch of declassified and historical unidentified anomalous phenomena records on Friday, 18 September, prompting fresh debate online over whether the disclosure was meaningful or politically timed. Some social-media users characterised the release as a distraction from other issues facing President Donald Trump's administration, but the criticism does not establish that distraction was the purpose of the release.

The files were published under the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters, or PURSUE, the government programme created after Trump directed federal agencies on 19 February to identify and release records related to UAPs, UFOs and possible extraterrestrial life. The Department has said the material is being reviewed and released in stages as records are located, assessed and declassified.

UFO File Release Adds Historical and Recent UAP Records

Assistant to the Secretary of War for Public Affairs and Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said the sixth release contained declassified and historical UAP files and that additional material would be published on a rolling basis. He added that the Department and its agency partners were already working on the next release.

PURSUE describes the records in its archive as unresolved, meaning the government has not been able to make a definitive determination about the phenomena shown or reported. The Department also says a case may remain unresolved simply because available information is insufficient, so the designation should not be read as confirmation of an extraordinary or extraterrestrial explanation.

Among the material in Release 06 is the 1952 Tremonton film, a long-running Project Blue Book case involving footage shot near Tremonton, Utah, by US Navy Chief Warrant Officer Delbert C. Newhouse. The release also includes historical records connected to the investigation of that film.

The tranche further includes records linked to reports from local law enforcement in Colorado in October 2023. One accompanying transcript says the officer recorded a reported UAP while narrating what was visible. Identifying details were removed to protect the source and law-enforcement activity, limiting what can be independently determined from the public version.

Other files include infrared footage gathered by US military platforms in locations including the Middle East and the Yellow Sea. The official descriptions are deliberately limited and warn that summaries of what appears in the footage should not be treated as analytical judgments or conclusions about what the objects were.

Release 06 also adds records associated with the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program, or AAWSAP, including contracting material and technical research documents. Public records from the release show that the programme involved a contract valued at about $21.9 million (£16.3 million) with Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies. That figure should not be described simply as money spent investigating Skinwalker Ranch because the programme covered a broader range of aerospace research.

UFO File Release Draws Political Criticism Online

The latest disclosure quickly became the subject of political commentary on social media. Some users described the UAP release as an attempt to divert attention from subjects including the economy, foreign policy and other controversies involving the administration. Similar distraction claims have accompanied earlier PURSUE releases.

Those reactions, however, amount to political opinion rather than evidence about why the sixth tranche appeared on 18 September. The Department's published explanation is that PURSUE is a continuing records-review project involving multiple agencies and that new material will be released as files are found and cleared for publication.

The release follows earlier PURSUE tranches published on 8 May, 22 May, 12 June, 10 July and 7 August. The sixth tranche therefore forms part of an established disclosure process rather than a one-off release announced only in response to the latest political debate.

The government has also maintained a cautious description of the evidence. PURSUE does not state that unresolved records demonstrate extraterrestrial technology, alien life or any single explanation for the reported sightings. Instead, it presents them as cases in which officials have not reached a definitive determination on the available information.

Parnell said further UAP files would continue to be published on a rolling basis. For now, the sixth release expands the public archive with material spanning decades, while claims that its timing was intended as a political distraction remain unsubstantiated.