Putting His Name on Chuck Schumer's UFO Homework Won't Save Trump's Failing Presidency
I know this may come as a shock to some readers, but Donald Trump took credit for someone else’s work, and released a bunch of UFO (also known as UAP) files that either were already on the FBI’s website or were mandated to be released via a 2024 act of Congress. We are being told by the three Republicans spearheading the House UAP caucus–Reps. Anna Paulina Luna, Eric Burlison and Tim ‘I like it when the president jangles keys in front of me‘ Burchett–that this is unprecedented leadership from dear leader. Dear readers, it is not.
On December 22nd, 2023, President Joe Biden signed the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). That act contained remnants of the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Act (UAPDA), the craziest piece of legislation I have ever read, authored by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Republican Mike Rounds who sits on both the Intelligence and Armed Services Committees. The little that did survive a bill which demanded that “The Federal Government shall exercise eminent domain over any and all recovered technologies of unknown origin and biological evidence of non-human intelligence that may be controlled by private persons or entities in the interests of the public good” was preserved in sections 1841, 1842 and 1843 of the 2024 NDAA.
Section 1841 got this ball rolling that Trump is now saying is his ball, as it mandated to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) that “Not later than 60 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Archivist shall commence establishment of a collection of unidentified anomalous phenomena.”
Section 1842 established that “As soon as practicable after the date of the enactment of this Act, each head of a Government office shall— (A) identify and organize records in the possession of the Government office or under the control of the Government office relating to unidentified anomalous phenomena; and (B) prepare such records for transmission to the Archivist for inclusion in the Collection.” Section 1843 carves out exceptions for postponing releases, just so long as they notify Congress “within 15 days of such decision with a reason for the postponement of disclosure.”
This was not happening. Newsnation’s UAP journalist Ross Coulthart said in May of 2024 that “We are already seeing blatant illegality in the way that the Defense Department in particular fails to properly heed Congress’s legal demands for information.” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna has constantly badgered the government for these records since the passage of the 2024 NDAA, and last month she wrote to the Department of Defense that “The lack of disclosure regarding the very real threat posed by UAPs in and around U.S. restricted airspace is concerning.” Even today in celebration of this move, she wrote “the UAP documents should have been released a long time ago.” Trump is claiming that this was all done at his direction, and it was not. This was a train already on the tracks before he arrived in office.
But now supposedly Trump has done what no other president could do, and released hundreds of pages of PDFs already available on vault.FBI.gov/UFO. Really all you need to know about whether these files are some big revelation is that Luna, Burlison and Burchett’s Twitter accounts have only boosted one photo or video from the files (the titular photo of three lights above the moon taken on Apollo 17’s mission). Rep. Burchett is so excited about this one he’s already done talking about it and is hyping up how future releases are really where we’ll see some bombshells. Wow, an unknown and uncertain future where we are told everything about UFOs by a government who finally cares about transparency? What a novel concept we’ve never heard of before! Someone get Fox Mulder on the phone.
The “Holy Crap” that Burchett could be referring to may be Luna’s request for 40+ more files she says are very compelling. So far she has been stonewalled and has yet to give any indication that these files she keeps demanding will see the light of day (her latest post vaguely says “There will be more files released. To include our request of the 40+ files. I talked to the Pentagon last night.”).
There is a vast disconnect here in that Luna has taken the lead on this subject to a pretty serious legislative degree, while Burchett has clearly been radicalized by his classified briefings and generally anything else in Washington he comes into contact with, and Eric Burlison seems genuinely interested in some aspect of this as he visits classified sites across the country. Yet, they are all servile empty suits to an autocrat who does not give one iota of a shit about anything that does not directly involve himself. Unless an alien comes down to tell him how smart and handsome he is, I don’t think Trump cares about extraterrestrial life. There’s a basic human curiosity the latter three have demonstrated on this subject that dear leader never has, which casts a giant shadow of doubt over this whole effort when these Trump acolytes award all of their hard work to him.
I clicked through this whole release on War.Gov/UFO this morning, skimming through each page I opened and stopping to dig deeper in some parts, and it’s not all bullshit. I get feeling that reflex when this is hailed as some big gift from Trump, but it’s not. This is a murky combination of processes that were already in motion thanks to the 2024 NDAA passed by both houses of Congress, then signed into law by Joe Biden, and held up by classic government lies and bureaucracy around UAPs, then met with repeated attempts to get past that blockade by a trio of House Republicans, their Democratic ally on this subject in Jared Moskowitz, and unknown other Representatives behind closed doors.
It’s basically impossible from any perspective outside the government to know for certain which of today’s files were lawfully postponed and adhering to section 1843 of the 2024 NDAA, what files were already en route to be released, what was unlawfully held up and pushed through thanks to Anna Paulina Luna being a squeaky wheel trying to get the UAP grease, and which files came as a result of Trump waking up and seeing his approval ratings in the tank and making some calls to see where else he can throw his weight around. This combination of real, maybe real, total bullshit, and complete unknowns actually makes this a very classic UAP story.
It is easy to dismiss all of this because of the unseriousness of Reps. Luna and Burchett in the normal political realm (I would bet most people have not heard of Eric Burlison, who tends to keep a quieter profile), but there is pressure coming from both houses of Congress on this issue and it is one of the only truly bipartisan issues in Congress. Today’s release is the fruit of a lot of efforts in the branch of government where Republicans have ceded total unchecked power to Trump’s executive branch. The Democratic Senate Minority Leader’s primary desire in stumping for his UAPDA three years in a row was the review board that was designed to release documents like today’s. It is very strange to think about a Chuck Schumer-Anna Paulina Luna alliance in our modern politics, but that is what a lot of this is about. He helped pass a law and she raised hell trying to get the government to adhere to it, and Trump is now claiming that he came in at the eleventh hour to do what no one else could do.
But again, a lot of this stuff was already out on the FBI’s website, and there is plenty in here that is total stat-padding horseshit. Kobe taking 50 shots in his final game-level cynicism. This video below I took a screenshot from was one of my favorites, and to me its inclusion proves how this is at least in part a sweaty attempt by team Trump to pretend like they’re releasing more than they actually are.
This is a funny video. It looks like a missile, has visible exhaust coming out the back, and an accompanying mission report described it as a “possible missile.” But something something UAP disclosure baby! www.war.gov/UFO/#DOW-UAP…
— Jacob Weindling (@jakeweindling.bsky.social) May 8, 2026 at 9:41 AM
There is interesting stuff from the Apollo missions in here, and those have long had many reports, rumors and lore around what the astronauts saw on those missions…and this dump won’t really shed any additional light on to the mystery (and no, a still photo of three non-described lights above the moon doesn’t really add anything new or conclusive to the picture). The Apollo 17 transcript details a command module pilot seeing “a few very bright particles or fragments or something that go drifting by as we maneuver,” and that “every once in a while, a fragment of considerably higher velocity than the others goes across my window.” The lunar module pilot also reported seeing “jagged, angular fragments that are tumbling.” They speculated on a range of different options, and in the transcript, never reached a firm conclusion.
Which is a fitting example for what most of this document dump looks like. There are a lot of “unresolved UAP reports” from the Middle East between 2020 and 2026 in here, and some videos of objects look like they could be of something anomalous, but there’s nowhere near enough corroborating information provided to make that clear (ie: speed, angle, elevation changes—anything that could give us insight into whether the object is exhibiting one of the five observables that are used to define UAPs). Most of the FBI stuff is already known, useless to this subject, or just rote administrative documentation. There’s not a whole lot of there there in this dump.
We are told by dear leaders’ lackeys that this is both an historic day and that future document dumps will be a “Holy Crap” moment, practically an admission that there is not a single thing in this one that makes you say “holy crap,” which naturally should lead one to question how historic today really is. I am reporting out my own UFO tip right now, and there is nothing in here that really feels new or revelatory to my eye. I think Occam’s Razor is that a lot of this stuff is being released precisely because it’s not that interesting, and if any Republican should get credit for this, it’s Rep. Luna who spent the last two years badgering the government to listen to Chuck Schumer. Nothing is ever straightforward in this realm, but if there is any clear takeaway from today’s document dump, it’s that there isn’t anything remotely compelling enough in it to distract people from $5/gallon gas or the rest of the raging tire fire that is Trump’s widely despised failure of a presidency.