Jimmy Carter’s failed attempt to access the UFO files reveals the limits of presidential power and the depth of government secrecy
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The inauguration of Donald Trump projected the confidence of a presidential office that could do anything: rename gulfs, impose tariffs, shut down borders, reduce bureaucracies, pardon citizens, reboot an economy and declassify documents. Trump even promised to release the famed JFK files. This bold projection of power raises a tantalizing question: will Trump now open the government’s UFO files?
Probably not. As history shows, U.S. presidents often have far less power than the public assumes, particularly when it comes to classified information. President Jimmy Carter discovered this first-hand.
Carter, who said he saw a UFO in 1969 after a Lions Club meeting in Leary, Ga., described the object as circular, self-luminous and as bright as the moon. The object reportedly retreated, came forward, and eventually flew away in front of Carter and 20 others.
The experience left a mark. During his presidential campaign, Carter pledged to disclose UFO files but found himself unable to deliver once in office.
 The truth is out there?Photo by Alex Shuper |
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During the transition period after his election, Carter asked outgoing CIA director George H.W. Bush for access to UFO files. According to UFO researcher Grant Cameron, Bush refused, citing the “need to know” policy and claiming that presidential curiosity was insufficient.
Ufologist Steven Greer, founder of the Disclosure Project, confirmed this account in a 2015 lecture. “Bush brushed him off saying, ‘I’m not going to tell you’—in a very derisive way—‘about that. Go see if you can get it from the Congressional Research Service.’ Carter was stunned,” Greer said.
Greer, who has spent decades advocating for UFO disclosure, said Carter’s efforts went beyond the CIA. The president contacted Stanford Research International (SRI) to lead a White House study on UFOs, but that attempt failed too. According to Greer, SRI was pressured to drop the study. “SRI had some people come in and threaten them, saying, ‘If you want to receive any more contracts from the Department of Defense or the U.S. government, you will refuse to do this study for the White House,’” Greer said. Faced with this pressure, SRI abandoned the project, leaving Carter’s administration without a path forward.
Carter’s frustrations illustrate how even the most powerful leaders can be locked out of the deepest levels of government secrecy. Greer shared an anecdote from Lt .-Col. John Williams, a U.S. Air Force officer, overheard Carter at a fundraiser.
Someone at the event asked Carter what it was like to be “the most powerful man in the world.” Carter replied, “I don’t think I was that man.” When pressed for clarification, he added, “There were certain things I wasn’t allowed to know about.” Another person joked, “What, like UFOs?” Carter reportedly responded, “Yes, that and more.”
Greer has shared similar accounts from military and intelligence officials, arguing that a “transnational entity” operates unconstitutionally, controlling transformative technology and information while bypassing elected oversight. He has briefed roughly 60 American military and government leaders on the issue, and in 2001, he organized a citizens’ hearing, where over 20 military, intelligence and government officials testified about their involvement in UFO-related activities.
British Admiral of the Fleet Peter Hill-Norton, a former chief of the defence staff, was among those kept in the dark. In a letter to Greer, he wrote, “I find your latest brief on the national security implications of the UFO subjects very clear and very convincing.” But in later conversations, he was frustrated to learn how much had been hidden from him. “Well, why didn’t they tell me?” he asked Greer.
Greer replied, “What would you have done if you’d found out there was a transnational entity unacknowledged, running unconstitutionally in your country and mine?”
Hill-Norton’s response: “I wouldn’t have stood for it for a bloody minute!”
That, Greer argues, is precisely why even high-ranking officials like Hill-Norton are denied access to UFO-related programs.
The implications are staggering. Greer and others claim hidden black budget projects have developed transformative technologies, including anti-gravity craft and novel energy systems. If true, such advances could upend global power structures. Yet even presidents, generals and intelligence chiefs are routinely excluded from this knowledge.
Carter’s experience highlights the limits of presidential power in the face of entrenched secrecy. Trump’s promise to release the JFK files offers a parallel: bold declarations of transparency often falter when confronted with the labyrinth of classified government information.
Presidents come and go, and so do UFOs. The truth, it seems, remains locked away—beyond the reach of even the Oval Office.
Lee Harding is a Research Associate for the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.
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