What the Trump Admin’s July 31 UAP Memo Says — and Doesn’t
On Friday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a memorandum telling the American intelligence community, in substance, that its secrecy agreements no longer bind it — narrowly: on one subject, through one channel, to one audience. The subject is UAPs. The channel is the government’s own. The audience is the federal intelligence community.
The memo, signed by Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence Aaron Lukas and captioned “Preliminary Guidance for Implementation of NDA Waiver,” relates to earlier headlines. Ten days before, administration officials had described a presidential directive freeing employees and contractors to bring UAP information to designated representatives. Now there is a preliminary implementing document. It rewards close reading, both for what it directs and for how much it leaves undone.
What the memo directs:
The intelligence community and the Department of War must implement a process ensuring that current and former federal employees and contractors are no longer bound by non-disclosure agreements (or other agreements, “oaths,” or “commitments”) that restrict transmitting UAP information to authorized representatives of PURSUE (the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters) or to AARO, the Pentagon’s UAP reporting office.
Within 30 days, every intelligence agency must designate a representative to PURSUE and inform its workforce of “the President’s order.”
“Subsequently,” agencies must ensure their workforces know that NDAs precluding disclosure of UAP information to the President or his designees are no longer in effect, and that personnel with UAP information “should” provide it to AARO or an authorized PURSUE representative.
Within the next 30 days, the administration will issue detailed reporting procedures, along with guidance on the broader PURSUE project.
What the memo does not address — a list worth at least equal attention:
Classification. Nothing in the memo authorizes disclosing classified information beyond what is already allowed.
Congress. The memo does not address waiving NDAs to permit disclosure to members of Congress or their staffs.
The public. It does not address disclosure to the public.
The UAP Science Advisory Council. It does not address disclosure to the White House’s own scientific advisory council. The waiver channels run to AARO and PURSUE, not to the scientists.
Legal effect. The memo has none by itself. It is preliminary implementation of other presidential directives and orders.
“The President’s order.” The memo references, but never explains, the order it implements. The order may be classified; it does not appear to have been made public. We are reading the shadow of a document we cannot see.
Contractors. The memo refers to NDAs applicable to “contractors” without specifying whose: agreements between contractor employees and the government, or between contractor employees and the contractors themselves. The distinction matters, and it is far from obvious how a presidential order could void a contractual obligation between a private company and its own employee. That is not a small question.
Obligation. “Should” is not “must.” The memo requires no one to come forward.
Here’s my take:
The memo confirms that the administration is devoting substantial effort and attention to UAP issues, treating the PURSUE Task Force seriously, and establishing a mechanism for those with knowledge about UAPs to report it. All of that is significant. But those criticizing the memo for doing too little and those touting it as a breakthrough are both a bit premature. The angels and the devils will be in the details.
Those expecting instant results will be disappointed. The federal government moves more like an aircraft carrier than a one-way attack drone. Slowly. And even when you can see it moving — even see which way it’s pointed — that doesn’t tell you where it will end up, or what, if anything, it will do when it gets there. The memo sets its own schedule: two 30-day clocks, both started Friday.
The fact that the administration is taking the UAP issue seriously doesn’t mean it plans to disclose truthful information to the public. A reporting channel that runs exclusively through the government’s own offices is, after all, as useful for containment as for candor. The issuance of the memo also doesn’t mean the administration is taking the issue of aliens seriously. Note that just a few days before the memo was issued, the official White House X account posted a cartoon video of Trump and JD Vance zipping around in a UFO and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer being revealed as an alien. And the day after the memo was released, Trump himself posted on social media a “video” of him on what appears to be a military base walking alongside a prototypical grey alien in shackles.
