Yesterday at midnight, the US Department of Defense launched a new website: war.gov/UFO.
162 files, including 14 images, 28 videos, 120 documents, spanning from 1947 to 2025. After the website went live, netizens discussed many of the photos.
108 files were partially redacted to varying degrees, but the Department of Defense emphasized in a statement that the redactions were solely to "protect the identities of witnesses and the locations of military facilities." Each file carries the same status label: unresolved. Meaning the government investigated but couldn't determine.
The entire website adopts a deliberate vintage visual language. Black and white filters, a minimalist font reminiscent of the Apollo era, and scans of undeciphered documents interspersed with NASA's lunar photos. Hovering the mouse cursor triggers a subtle Geiger counter-like noise. The moment you open the page, you'd think you've entered a 1970s government leak-themed movie.
This project is called PURSUE, short for Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters. A retroactively forced acronym, trying to spell out "pursue" by using the initials of each agency. The official statement reads: "These files have long been concealed by the classification system, fueling legitimate speculation; it's time for the American people to see for themselves." FBI Director Kash Patel followed with: "Transparency never achieved by any prior administration." Trump's wording on Truth Social was more casual: "Have Fun and Enjoy!”
However, the most interesting part of disclosing this information is not the event itself. The most interesting part is the timing — why now? The Rhythm editorial team has some speculations and thoughts.
Paving the Way for the 2026 Midterm Elections
This point has been mentioned the least by the media, but it is actually the most important.
November 3, 2026, is the date of the midterm elections, where all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 Senate seats will be up for election. The historical trend is that the lower the approval rating of the ruling party's president, the greater the losses in the midterm elections.
A May 3rd Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll stated: "With 6 months to go until the November midterms, the Republican Party is facing a deteriorating political environment, with widespread dissatisfaction among Americans over Trump's leadership on the Iran War and other key issues, and Democratic voters significantly more motivated than Republican voters."
Viewed in this context, the May 8th release is not crucial in itself, but the use of the term "rolling basis." The U.S. Department of Defense repeatedly emphasized in the announcement: "New material will be continuously released based on ongoing disclosures and material discoveries."
This is an indication of pacing control.
If you are a communication strategist for the Trump team, releasing all materials at once is the dumbest approach. The smartest way is to release the UFO files in a "TV series" rhythm: release Season 1 in May, align Season 2 with Spielberg's movie release in June, stir discussion in the summer, and in September-October, right before the midterm election, reveal the most explosive content.
Octagon AI's market analysis directly pointed out: "The 2026 U.S. midterm election is a key influencing factor for the potential UFO document release. This disclosure may occur when polls show significant seat losses for Trump's party in both chambers or when his approval ratings are dismal to redirect public attention."
162 documents are just the beginning. What will truly determine if this disclosure is a "political tool" is not what was released on May 8th, but whether the rhythm will continue in September, October, and November.
The "Transparency" Narrative of Trump's Second Term
One of the core communication narratives of Trump's second term is "I am more transparent than all previous presidents." This statement needs continuous new evidence to support it.
The iteration cadence is roughly as follows: In December 2025, the Department of Justice released the Epstein files, on an independent site with rolling updates. On May 8, 2026, the US Department of Defense released UFO files, on an independent site with rolling updates, in an identical product form. The time gap between the two releases was less than 5 months.
Where is the next stop? The candidate list is easy to guess. The JFK files with undisclosed sections. MLK files. Part of the 9/11 Commission's attachments. Each one could fit the same product template: independent domain, rolling updates, welcoming "private sector analysis." aliens.gov has already been registered, and the same thing may be happening on jfk.gov or a similar domain.
This is Disclosure as a Service. It is not a one-time action but a reusable government product form.
This form of political efficiency is very high. Each release can simultaneously achieve three things: satisfy the MAGA camp's expectations of "transparency"; provide a specific window of attention shift; provide raw material for downstream content industries like Hollywood, Polymarket, and Solana meme coins.
The smartest aspect is that the government has shed the interpretive power. It does not affirm nor deny the existence of aliens. It does not draw conclusions, just presents materials. This means that the government's responsibility for the truth has been minimized, but the political credit gained is undiscounted.
The Iran War Needs a "Good News" Attention Diversion
This does not require too much reasoning because many within the MAGA circle have openly said this, including Joe Rogan.
On May 7, in Episode 2247 of "The Joe Rogan Experience," Rogan asked the attending Republican Congressman Tim Burchett: "What doesn't quite make sense is why now, unless you're willing to think from the most cynical angle: the Iran war is not going well, the American public is very angry, many people feel we should never have been involved in the first place. We need some good news."
Joe Rogan is the core podcast host who helped Trump attract manosphere voters to the red camp in 2024. This time, he directly pointed out on his own show, indicating that within the MAGA media ecosystem, this interpretation is already an open secret.
Data-wise, things are also not looking good for Trump. CNN's Poll of Polls on May 5 showed Trump's overall approval rating at 35%, nearing the low point of Bush Jr.'s second term. His approval on economic issues dropped to 31%, with over 70% disapproving of the cost of living. 61% of Americans label the Iran war as a "mistake." Gas prices surged above $4.5 per gallon.
The political impact of this number may be even greater than the daily death toll in the Middle East, as it goes directly into the budget of every American family.
Even the official code name for this war has been changed by the public. The name Trump gave to the operation was "Operation Epic Fury," but Twitter users modified it to "Operation Epstein Fury." This name change went viral, indicating that the public has already linked this war with "distraction."
Even more harsh is the Data for Progress poll in March: 52% of Americans believe that Trump's initiation of the Iran War was at least partially to distract from Epstein. Even 25% of Republican voters agree with this assessment. 81% of Democrats and 66% of voters under 45 see this as a fact. This is a bipartisan, cross-generational consensus, with the American public no longer believing that the president's motive for starting a war is national security.
If the Iran War itself is suspected of being a cover-up for Epstein, then using UFOs to cover up the Iran War is a hedge against the hedge. The Trump administration is now facing not just a single issue spiraling out of control, but a series of interconnected out-of-control issues. Each new diversion simultaneously reinforces the metanarrative of "here they go diverting attention again."
UFO Covering Up Epstein Files
On December 19, 2025, the Department of Justice, under newly passed laws, released the first batch of Epstein files. The release format at the time included: a standalone site, rolling updates, no official interpretation provided, and welcomed "private sector analysis."
And on May 8, war.gov/UFO had almost the exact same format. A standalone site, rolling updates, no official interpretation provided, and welcomed "private sector analysis."
The U.S. Department of Defense stated in its announcement: "The materials archived here are unresolved cases, meaning the government cannot make a definitive judgment on the nature of the observed phenomena... The Department of Defense welcomes private sector analysis, information, and expertise."
This exact speech was heard by Americans just in December. Turning "file disclosure" into a replicable government product, with an independent domain, low response latency, unified visual style, and white space to be filled with civilian narratives, is clearly a communication innovation of Trump's second term.
But the Epstein files did not die. Massie, the Kentucky Republican congressman known for opposing Trump, wrote a sentence in February: "They deployed the ultimate weapon of mass distraction, but the Epstein files won't disappear... not even for aliens." This phrase "weapon of mass distraction" is a pun in the original English text, replacing "mass destruction" with "mass distraction."
The most notable reaction on May 8 was the backlash from within the MAGA camp. Marjorie Taylor Greene, known as one of Trump's most loyal congresswomen, tweeted: "I really don't care about UFO files. I really don't care. I am sick of the 'look at that shiny object' style of propaganda, covering up foreign wars, letting rapists and pedophiles run free, and destroying the value of the dollar." In another tweet, she was more direct: "The most transparent government still hasn't released all the Epstein files, hasn't arrested anyone, but today they threw you some UFO files to get you excited enough to forget you're paying $4.5 a gallon for gas for another foreign war they said they wouldn't start again."
Alex Jones was another prominent figure in the backlash. The long-time conspiracy theorist, who was expected to be a major spectator of the "government releases alien archives," stamped this release as a "nothingburger." Jones further stated: "This shows the modus operandi and mindset of the same group of people as in the Epstein file case, until the public forces Congress to release 3 million documents."
This detail is crucial. Jones is not attacking Trump for not revealing the truth; he is accusing Trump of copying Epstein's playbook. The implication is that this "rolling release, deliberate hollowness, welcoming of public analysis" product template was already exposed in the Epstein files once, and now, in its second iteration, it simply won't fool anyone.
Another data point here is Al Jazeera citing analyst Ben-Ephraim, who pointed out that the Google search volume for "Epstein files" plummeted off a cliff after the Iran War began. This means that the "burying small events with big events" strategy is indeed effective in terms of data, at least enough to temporarily remove a topic from Google Trends' hot list. The issue is, a decline in search volume does not equate to the disappearance of the topic. The handling of the Epstein files has become a structural liability of Trump's second term, and every time it is suppressed, the subsequent rebound will be even stronger.
The White House Cashing Out on Polymarket Prediction Markets
On Polymarket, the market "Will Trump disclose UFO files by 2027" currently shows 100% YES. The total trading volume is $845,000.
Expanding the view to all UFO-related Polymarket markets, the total trading volume is $41.9 million across 104 active markets. Among them, the series "Will the U.S. confirm the existence of aliens by a certain date" alone has generated a total trading volume of $35 million.
It is worth mentioning the "Whale Event" on Polymarket in December 2025. At that time, a $16 million market asking "Will Trump disclose UFO files in 2025" was bought up by a whale at a price close to $1 at the last minute, using the UMA governance token to push the result to YES. At that time, no files were actually released, only a 10-minute blurry video posted by AARO. The community exploded, criticizing this as "proof-of-whales." CryptoSlate's report classified this event as a "serious credibility crisis" for Polymarket.
The aftermath of this event has still not subsided to this day. The White House can hardly claim ignorance of the relevant markets on Polymarket. Upon observing the account profiles, it is also hard not to suspect the existence of insider trading.
On May 8th, as the UFO files were officially disclosed, the market on Polymarket asking "Will Trump disclose UFO files before 2027" was settled as "yes." This market had a total trading volume of $845,000, and the account that bet "yes" earned tens of thousands of dollars.
However, the situation was not so straightforward for another market.
The trading event asking "Will the U.S. confirm the existence of aliens before ___" had a total trading volume of over $35 million. From April 1st until the release of the files, this market saw an influx of numerous new accounts. Many of these accounts exhibited highly consistent behavioral patterns, only buying "yes" in this market, with no transaction records in any other type of market, and their registration and opening positions almost perfectly aligned.
According to statistics, at least 13 of these new accounts bought in with over $1,000 on the "confirmation this year" option, with a total potential payoff exceeding $10 million. Looking at each account individually, they could all be explained as "well-informed new users." If the subsequent release of related documents or statements by officials align with the settlement conditions of this market, this $10 million could be cashed out.
The entire Hollywood is betting on UFO themes in 2026
On June 12th, Spielberg's UFO movie "Disclosure Day" was simultaneously released worldwide in IMAX.
The tagline of this movie is "All Will Be Disclosed," directly borrowing from the core slogan of the UFO community's "Disclosure Movement." Produced by Universal Pictures, scored by John Williams (in his 30th collaboration with Spielberg), starring Emily Blunt as a Kansas City weather anchor, Josh O'Connor as the whistleblower, and Colin Firth as the villainous CEO. The script was written by David Koepp, who previously worked with Spielberg on "Jurassic Park" and "War of the Worlds."
On May 8, Trump released UFO files, just 35 days before the release of this movie.
This timing did not escape anyone's notice. The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "The Pentagon has promised to 'roll out new material,' and for Universal's upcoming Spielberg film, the timing couldn't be better." The Wrap dedicated a paragraph in the article: "The happiest person is Spielberg. His movie is coming out in June, receiving completely free nationwide publicity."
Meanwhile, the entire Hollywood is betting on UFO themes for 2026: Apple Original Films is working on a UAP movie directed by Joseph Kosinski, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, with David Grusch (the UFO whistleblower who testified before Congress in 2023) as a consultant; Hulu is rebooting X-Files; and 20th Century is also working on a movie related to Roswell.
Producer Bryce Zabel told THR, "The UFO/UAP reality is the zeitgeist of our era. Obama and Trump are two completely opposite presidents, but both take this possibility seriously."
This statement translates to: Hollywood has already turned UFOs into a bipartisan, cross-era stable IP. This is more important than any single film; it signifies that the industry believes this theme can at least carry through the 2028 election.
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