Trump sparks concern as he posts wild image of ALIEN in chains at US Army base

By ROSS IBBETSON, ASSOCIATE EDITOR Published: 13:19, 18 May 2026 | Updated: 13:25, 18 May 2026 Donald Trump sparked alarm last night by posting an AI-generated image of himself standing alongside a handcuffed alien at a US military base.  Trump and his bodyguards flank the cuffed extraterrestrial in the image, posted on his Truth Social account Sunday.  Trump's post, coming days after the White House released new UFO files, was sharply criticized by some commentators even as they recognized it was probably meant in jest. Eric Weinstein, an investor and mathematician, posted on X: 'Maybe it's "real." Maybe, a head fake. Maybe it's awesome AF. Maybe it's dorky dad humor. Maybe it's a clever way to prepare the world. Etc... 'What do I believe? That we are here clowning around without full and totally uncontested control of our own National Defense-critical military airspace.' Another X user saw something more cynical: 'This is Trump signaling that the discussion around disclosure is total bulls*** and people will volunteer to believe it anyways.'   A third went further: 'Our government only tells us piece of the truth and then manufactures the rest to get us all arguing and fighting. They will never give over information or tech that will take power away from them.'  Others read it more charitably, as humorous 'soft propaganda' spotlighting the administration's disclosure push, even if not everyone bought the motive. The President and bodyguards flank the handcuffed extra terrestrial at a US military base, in the image posted on Truth Social Sunday The image sparked a wave of memes, including a video which showed Trump and Elon Musk walking beside the alien as Jeffrey Epstein led the group 'As much as I hate Trump he is the only president in my life who has the balls to push for disclosure. Even though we all know it's a distraction from Epstein,' wrote one X user. Another said: 'Personally I don't see his post as anything other than having some fun with soft propaganda.' The image sparked a wave of memes, including a video which showed Trump and Elon Musk walking beside the alien as Jeffrey Epstein led the group.  The post followed a UFO document dump by the Pentagon earlier this month, when the administration began releasing a trove of files on so-called 'unidentified anomalous phenomena' (UAPs).  'Whereas previous administrations have failed to be transparent on this subject, with these new Documents and Videos, the people can decide for themselves, "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?" Have Fun and Enjoy!' Trump wrote on Truth Social as the files went live. The release included more than 20 military videos of unidentified objects, old State Department cables and NASA transcripts, among them Buzz Aldrin describing a 'fairly bright light source' aboard Apollo 11 and an intelligence official's account of a 'super-hot' orb hovering over the ground. Sean Kirkpatrick, former director of the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, warned the dump would 'only serve to fuel more speculation, conspiracy and arm-chair pseudoscience.'  The comments below have not been moderated. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.