Bros, this is really easy: The US Air Force was developing all sorts of secret stuff during the Cold War, to keep it secret from, you know, the Russians.
When a secret spy balloon crashed in a public place in Roswell, the Air Force didn't answer any direct questions and when someone asked if it could be aliens, their reply was, "it can be whatever you want!"
Part 2: Everyone forgot all about the whole event for 30 years, because it was completely unremarkable. Then, after the Watergate scandal, everyone was super suspicious of the government, because one conspiracy had just turned out to be true. And one guy got on the radio and was like, "yeah well the government even has aliens, remember Roswell?" And nobody did, so then they retold the story in the most suspicious way possible and he sold a ton of books.
The same Trump who didn't read intelligence briefings? They probably handed him one on day one that explained aliens and Area 51 are all real and he used it to wipe burger grease off his mouth while he was writing a Tweet with his other hand in all caps.
Well - didn't he try? If I am not wrong - the latest string of UFO / UAP reports started during the Trump presidency. I wouldn't be surprised if Trump was the one who asked the Pentagon to "show the people the aliens" - in hopes that it will change the nations focus from his own mental or moral disabilities. And the Pentagon has obliged - and showed people the aliens in all their glory. 👽
The result is that now we know much more about various optical illusions that happen in military binoculars, telescopes and such - than we did ever before.
Presidents don't get that information. It's on a need-to-know proprietary basis only. I was in the Army in military intelligence and there was indeed a portal in our computer system regarding UFOs and aliens but I did not have access to it because it was not part of my job. The closest we've heard of Presidents knowing about aliens is when Bill Clinton pontificated about it on some late-night talk show.
Alien conspirarcy theories worked as a baseline test for the CIA to track how effective propoganda and misinformation is before they rolled out the same techniques in places that it mattered for US foriegn policy interests.