WHAT TRUMP REALLY KNOWS ABOUT ROSWELL
(Originally published July 2020)
Two days before Father's Day last month, President Donald Trump appeared on his son Donald Jr.'s podcast Triggered. At a certain point in the interview, Don Jr. asks his father about the subject of the Roswell UFO crash in July of 1947. He asks of the Chief Executive if he could "let us know what's really going on" about the Roswell incident.
The President then replied, "I won't talk to you about what I know about it, but it's very interesting."
He adds that he has "been asked this question" many times and that many people go to Roswell wanting to find out the answer.
After his father offered this, Don Jr. then asked him if he might declassify information on Roswell someday, to which the President replied, "Well, I'll have to think about that one."
Don Jr. then changes the subject. The exchange can be seen in this short clip:
THE HISTORIC IMPLICATIONS OF TRUMP'S ROSWELL "ADMISSION"
Though the father-son exchange on Roswell is brief, we can derive much from it. For instance, what happened at Roswell was and remains a secret government matter. Trump will not talk about it. Over 70 years after the crash event, and the current President in 2020 will not discuss it. We can also gather that the topic is so very secret that it remains classified even though decades have passed. It would require presidential declassification in order to make it public, and Trump tells us he is not sure if he would do that relative to Roswell.
More importantly, by implication, Trump is telling us that the 1990s official Air Force explanation that the crashed object was a Mogul balloon, is false. If Trump is unable to discuss the Roswell matter, then the Air Force's Mogul balloon explanation cannot possibly be true. The Mogul program was long ago declassified and Trump would be reiterating that official explanation - not ignoring it and creating more mystery with his comments. Trump is clearly speaking about his awareness of something that he has learned about the crash that is not Mogul, that he is prohibited from mentioning.
Trump is essentially saying that he cannot share publicly what he knows about Roswell; but what he does know is intriguing; that he is aware of the public interest in the crash; he would think about declassification because it would require it; and by extension, that what we have been told by Air Force officials about what happened at Roswell is not the real story.
IS TRUMP BEING HONEST THAT HE POSSESSES ROSWELL SECRETS?
There are three things to keep in mind when answering this question:
We must consider the source.
The statements made in the podcast are coming from a man known to lie or embellish constantly about many matters, and from someone who has done so over a very long time.
The Roswell Questions and Answers May Have Been Jokingly Given
The episode of the podcast that Trump appears in is a special edition about fathers, and this episode
appears more light-hearted and the questions are softball. In fact, during this same podcast, Don Jr. asks his father what he thinks about the eccentric pop-phenom zookeeper, the Tiger King. Both father and son do have an ever-so-slight smirk when discussing the Roswell subject. And though the Roswell questions and answers appear spontaneous, we must bear in mind that Donald Trump was a media and reality star, who knows how to rehearse and act. It is almost inconceivable that Don Jr. didn't prep his father, in advance of filming, what questions he was going to ask of him.
The week before the podcast airing was a particularly bad one for Trump. The Trumps like distraction in the face of bad things. Maybe they thought they'd throw in the Roswell arrow of distraction and see if it would make a mark.
And Don Jr. did in fact receive requests from the online UFO Twitter community requesting that he ask his Dad about what really happened at Roswell.
He Would Never Be Read Into the Roswell Program
Despite his cryptic and tantalizing comments about Roswell, the truth is that Trump has never been told the truth about Roswell. He would never have been "read into" the Roswell program. The central group that maintains access to these matters would not share such a secret with such a man as Donald Trump. The reasons are numerous:
Trump's Big Mouth
Trump has released classified information into the public domain both intentionally and accidentally in the past. And even in the exchange on his son's podcast he shows that can't keep his mouth shut even about Roswell. If what he says about it is true, even saying that he has "very interesting" details about it, that it is classified and that he may one day declassify what it is, this in itself is saying too much. Such a person does not fit the profile of a person who can be or would be entrusted with the greatest secret in history.
Trump's Ego
He feels compelled to talk about classified matters because he wants you to believe that he has special knowledge about all things. This is his method of operation. And note that the Roswell secret he supposedly possesses, he talks about in reference to himself when he says: "I won't talk to you"..."about what I know"..."I'll have to think about that." Everything is about him. Those who could impart the Roswell answer to Trump will not do so because they fear that he would release it to the public because he would want to be the President who "opened up" Roswell.
I strongly suspect that the reason Trump won't tell his son what he knows about the matter (and why he says that he would have to "think about" disclosure) is because he has not been briefed on anything of real substance about the matter. Those with outsized egos do not want to be proven wrong - nor do they want to admit that they do not have a particular answer or that they are not in the know. To do so would be to show weakness, something egotists are loathe to do. This is a man who states that he believes that he knows more "than most Generals" on military matters, even though he never served.
Trump's Anti-Science Stance
Someone such as Trump who has been so steadfastly anti-science (from eliminating the phrase "climate change" from many government sites, to not wearing masks in public and downplaying the value of COVID-19 testing) would not be the kind of leader that would be confided in with the greatest science secret in all of history. Knowledge of the visitors is not imparted to those who disdain knowledge.
Trump's Anti-Intelligence Community Stance
Trump has constantly publicly berated the very faction that would tell him about Roswell - the Intelligence Community. He has fired and berated leaders at the DIA, CIA, FBI and others. He has burned professional and personal bridges with nearly all former heads of these agencies, many who have granted interviews saying unflattering things about the President's understanding of Intelligence matters. Though he is of course informed about most all relevant matters as Chief Executive, it is strongly suspected that those from Intelligence - a community harangued by Trump - who have been read into the Roswell program, would ever inform a leader who despises them and who does not understand or appreciate their mission. They too likely have concerns about his ability to maintain such a secret given his ego and psychological make-up.
Trump's Dangerous Conspiracies
Trump adheres to politically or culturally inspired conspiracies. He promoted that Senator Ted Cruz's father killed JFK, and that Obama was not born in the USA. Those who grant leaders access to the Roswell secret may wisely consider if that leader would promote potentially dangerous conspiracies such as that the aliens are here to harm us or that they aim to take from us.
Trump's Conflicting Statements on UFOs
In an interview with Tucker Carlson of Fox News, which Trump released on YouTube on July 5, 2019, Carlson asks Trump about UFOs. He tells Carlson that he "personally" does not believe there's much to UFOs, but then later tells Carlson that he maintains "an open mind" about them. Like so many of Trump's statements on so many topics, they are often contradictory and inconsistent. In the same vein, when answering a question by Reuters about the Pentagon-released USS Nimitz UFO video, Trump said, "that's a hell of a video" but then added, "if it's real." Why Trump says "if it's real" is puzzling. He should know that the Pentagon has declared it authentic. Trump appears to be all over the place on the subject – as he is on so many. This leads me to believe he has no core knowledge about the core story of Roswell.
TRUMP, ROSWELL AND WHAT HE KNOWS
Presidents are not told every secret about everything. Career intelligence (and their associates in the private sector) recognize that Presidents are elected and that they "change out" cyclically - they come and go. Therefore Presidents are not told about all critically secure matters. And Donald Trump would be the last leader that would be entrusted with keeping the Roswell secret.
Trump is blowing smoke and wants people to believe that he has been imparted with the solution to Roswell even though he has not.
