Was an image of a star-shaped UFO released by the Department of War in the UFO Files? No, that's not true: The UFO files released by the Trump administration do not include a photo of a star-shaped UFO that appears to be hovering over water. The image was previously published on the internet on April 9, 2026, a month before the administration released the UFO files.
The claim appeared in a May 10, 2026, post on X account @realgerhardtvdm (archived here). It opened:
ALIEN UFO/UAP FILES:
The White House released a colour photo of the star shaped UFO/UAP. (Photo 1)
It looks similar to the 1978 Superman movie spaceship that flew Superman to earth. (Photo 1 & 3)
This is what the image looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @realgerhardtvdm on X.)
The Department of War published government files (archived here) "related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs)," on May 8, 2026. Lead Stories reviewed all 15 declassified UFO Files images and 27 videos, none of which match the photo of the star-shaped object posted on X. Lead Stories searched the files with the keyword "star" and the results included three files, as this screenshot shows:
(Image source: U.S. Department of War.)
The video found in the search of the UFO files contains a star-shaped object, with the title DOW-UAP-PR038, Unresolved UAP Report, Middle East, 2013 (archived here), with the video description, "This video depicts an area of contrast resembling an eight-pointed star with arms of alternating length." The object can be clearly seen at 0:15 in the video. This star-shaped object does not match the one posted on X. Here is a screenshot from the video:
(Image source: U.S. Department of War.)
The image of the star-shaped object was posted on X account @Cortex_Zero (archived here) on April 9, 2026, approximately a month before the Department of War published the UFO files on May 8, 2026, as this screenshot shows:
(Image source: post by @Cortex_Zero on X. Red oval by Lead Stories.)
