Mellon's first steps as president
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 6
| Speaker | Christopher K. Mellon, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence |
|---|---|
| Interview | The Joe Rogan Experience, episode #1645 |
| Question | What would you do or want to know immediately if you were president? |
| Answer as quoted | "I'd want to know the Department of Energy, all of their Special Programs." |
| Earlier summary | Order agencies to share UAP data, investigate properly and publish findings where possible |
| Context | Mellon's advocacy fed into 2020 and 2022 UAP legislation, including the law creating AARO |
| Date | 5 May 2021 |
| Topics | Secrecy & cover-up (topic), Government programs (topic) |
| People | Christopher Mellon |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 198 |
| Year | 2021 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 2021 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 5 |
In an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, the former intelligence official Christopher Mellon was asked what he would do, or want to know, first about UAP if he were president.[2][3] According to a widely shared clip, his answer was: "I'd want to know the Department of Energy, all of their Special Programs."[2] The earlier version of this article summarised his answer more broadly. It said he would order agencies to share their UAP data, conduct a proper investigation, and make the findings public as far as possible.
The interview
Mellon appeared as the guest of episode #1645 of The Joe Rogan Experience, which is available on Spotify. A YouTube excerpt from Rogan's channel is titled "Former Intelligence Secretary Christopher Mellon's Fascination with UFO's".[3][4] The earlier version of this article dated the interview to 2021.
On 2 August 2022 a UAP commentator posted a clip on X (Twitter) with this exchange:[2]
- Rogan: "What would you do or want to know immediately if President?"
- Mellon: "I'd want to know the Department of Energy, all of their Special Programs."
The full episode could not be watched for this article, so whether Mellon went on to describe broader steps, as the earlier summary said, could not be checked.[3][4]
The Department of Energy oversees the military's nuclear weapons programme and runs the National Laboratories, which do most of the government's physical-science research.[5] Its special access programmes are separate from the Defense Department's, which Mellon oversaw.[1][5]
Mellon's advocacy
Mellon has campaigned for transparency on UAP since 2017.[1]
- 2017. He joined To the Stars Academy as its national security adviser. He helped bring the Navy UAP videos and the AATIP story to the New York Times.
- 2018. He wrote a Washington Post column about Pentagon indifference to repeated military UAP encounters. Writing for the National Academies, Keith Kloor credited the column with turning UFOs into a "serious news story".
- 2020. Senator Marco Rubio's 2020 language requiring a UAP report "drew heavily" from Mellon's proposals. Politico wrote that Mellon had "effectively drafted" it.
- 2021–22. He lobbied for the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2022, which created the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO).[1]
He has argued that UAP pose a potential national-security and flight-safety problem whatever their origin.[1] The earlier version of this article added two further points: that his proposals influenced the UAP Disclosure Act proposals of 2023, and that in 2024 he co-founded efforts to encourage the release of more UAP information. Neither is covered by the sources read here.
Significance
The answer is a small one, but it fits Mellon's record of pressing for information to be gathered from across the government and reported to Congress.[1] His specific mention of the Department of Energy's special programmes points to an area outside the Defense Department programmes he had personally overseen.[1][2]
People and topics
- Christopher Mellon — Former deputy assistant secretary of defense for intelligence who helped release the Navy UAP videos.
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- AARO — The Pentagon office set up in 2022 to investigate UAP.
- UAP Disclosure Act — A 2023 Senate proposal by Chuck Schumer and Mike Rounds to release UAP records.
On the Timeline
- Insider on oversight without access (2021) (1 May 2021) — An anonymous insider tells a researcher that officials with oversight lack access to UAP information.
- Greer's Elizondo vehicle story (19 May 2021) — Steven Greer says he heard Elizondo was in a facility holding an alien vehicle.
See every 2021 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Christopher Mellon — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- twitter.com · twitter.com · archived copy
- open.spotify.com · open.spotify.com · archived copy
- youtu.be · youtu.be · archived copy
- United States Department of Energy — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
Facts in this article are drawn in part from the Wikipedia articles “Christopher Mellon”, “United States Department of Energy”, “United States Department of Energy”, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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