President Donald Trump says he’s heard some interesting things about Roswell, but he’s not sharing even with his eldest child.
Trump made the comments Thursday in a Father’s Day-themed interview with his son Don Trump Jr., hosted by the president's reelection campaign. Don Jr. wound down his interview by jokingly asking his Dad/President if he would ever divulge more information about Roswell, the New Mexico city known for its proximity to arguably most famous UFO event — “and let us know what’s really going on.”
Trump responded, “I won’t talk to you about what I know about it, but it’s very interesting.”
In 1947, a rancher discovered unidentifiable debris in his sheep pasture outside Roswell. Air Force officials said it was a crashed weather balloon, but skeptics questioned whether it was in fact at extraterrestrial flying saucer. Decades later the U.S. military acknowledged the debris was related to a top-secret atomic project. Still, the UFO theory has flourished.
The president in the past has spoken skeptically about the possibility that there is something out there. Last year Trump said he received short briefing on UFO sighting, but also offered: “People are saying they’re seeing UFOs. Do I believe it? Not particularly.”
After his father offered that he heard some “interesting” things about Roswell, Trump Jr. asked the president might declassify that information someday.
Get Tri-state area news delivered to your inbox.> Sign up for NBC New York's News Headlines newsletter.
“Well, I’ll have to think about that one,” the president responded.
Trump also divulged that he watched “a couple” of episodes of Netflix’s “Tiger King.” Joseph Maldonado-Passage, known as Joe Exotic, the star of the popular docuseries, is serving a 22-year prison sentence after he was convicted for hiring a hit man to murder a rival, the animal-rights activist.
Trump said during a April press briefing he was unfamiliar with the “Tiger King” when asked about Don Jr. jokingly saying on a radio show that he was lobbying the president for a pardon for Maldonado-Passage.
U.S. & World
The president on Thursday did not say when he was considering a pardon but sounded intrigued by Maldonado-Passage.
“That’s a whole strange deal going on,” Trump said. “I’ll tell you that’s a strange guy and a lot of strange people surrounding him.”