Elections, aliens and UFOs

Thursday 5th September, 2024

Former US President Donald Trump has mastered the art of attracting media attention. He has hit international headlines again. The Democrats accused him of having won the 2016 presidential election with the help of Russians. He has vehemently denied that claim. This time around, he has sought to use aliens, of all beings, and Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs), of all things, to improve his chances in a razor-close presidential race––in a manner of speaking.

In a recent podcast interview, Trump has undertaken to release the Pentagon’s new videos of UFOs if he is re-elected to the White House. He has also pledged to declassify documents on the JFK assassination, and release the Epstein Files (pertaining to US financier Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of teenage girls.)

Trump has spoken about UFOs in a previous interview as well. He seems intent to pander to Americans’ intrigue about aliens and garner votes. The JFK assassination is now history, but his narrow escape from an assassin’s bullet, which grazed his right ear in July may have reminded him of Kennedy’s tragic death, the so-called magic bullet, etc., and prompted him to think of declassifying the files on the JFK assassination. But what purpose will the release of ‘new UFO footage’ serve? This is an unusual election pledge, but Trump’s propagandists can claim that it indicates his readiness to safeguard the US citizens’ right to information.

A common denominator among politicians the world over is their readiness to do all it takes to garner votes to gain or retain power. Trump has taken his election campaign to the celestial level by talking about aliens and UFOs, as it were. He is facing a situation he did not bargain for; he has had to vie with Vice President Kamala Harris, and not Biden, for the presidency. He is leaving no stone unturned in his efforts to shore up his approval ratings vis-a-vis the rising popularity of Harris.

Trump’s undertaking to release Pentagon videos of UFOs and his admission that there could be life on other planets are bound to give a turbo-boost to the conspiracy theories that aliens have visited Earth, and US President Dwight D Eisenhower met in the 1950s.

The upcoming US presidential election is dominating the international media scene, as usual; it has apparently overshadowed burning global issues such as armed conflicts, poverty, hunger, the rapid spread of Mpox, pollution, climate change, the rise of far right in Europe and the fear of the world economy going into recession.

Trump and Harris are amply demonstrating their speechifying skills. Sri Lankan politicians are not alone in saying so little in so many words. Trump and Harris, in their oratorical outbursts replete with rhetoric and dramatics, deal with many issues comprehensively but do not spell out how they intend to stop the destruction of Palestinian lives in Gaza and bring the Russia-NATO war being fought in Ukraine to an immediate end, in case of being elected to the most powerful position in the world. There have been mere statements expressing shock and dismay at the loss of life in Gaza and pledges to defend the US allies.

Both Trump and Harris have made known their willingness to go to any extent to ensure that the US will retain its global dominance. They have chosen to remain silent on the allegation that Washington is carrying out regime change operations in South Asia. Former Prime Ministers of Pakistan and Bangladesh Imran Khan and Sheikh Hasina have accused the US of having had a hand in their ousters. US involvement in the 2022 uprising in this country has also been alleged.

Sadly, the international media has not questioned Trump or Harris on Prof. Jeffrey D. Sachs’ call for a UN probe into the alleged US involvement in regime change operations in South Asia. Perhaps, it considers aliens and UFOs more newsworthy.