Ross Coulthart says Trump knows the UFO program: does it add up?

Ross Coulthart is making big claims again. He says President Trump now knows about the legacy UFO crash retrieval and reverse engineering program, and that people at a very high level in his office are overseeing it. I find his sources hard to trust, and the statements around this story don't add up.

Coulthart made the claims on Reality Check, his NewsNation show, while answering questions about a disclosure event in Stockholm, David Grusch and Jay Stratton's new book. I'll go through each in turn, including a passage from Stratton's book that I think could be applied to Stratton himself.

Ross Coulthart says Trump knows about the legacy retrieval program

The question put to Coulthart was about the inaugural meeting of the Beyond Institute, where experts discussed the UAP question and the audience was allegedly shown imagery of a UAP not meant for public view. The questioner suggested someone might eventually call a craft down, meet a non-human intelligence and share it freely. Coulthart said the imagery was shown by Jake Barber in a remote call to the Beyond group at a presentation in Stockholm, and that "by all accounts, it was quite something."

According to Coulthart, Barber admitted publicly for the first time that the egg-shaped objects he had been involved in retrieving were seen coming from a much larger mothership in low Earth orbit or the upper atmosphere. Coulthart said this suggests the Sky Watcher team has obtained much more imagery than it has released. He also said he hopes the person who filmed the presentation and put it online realizes that doing so may discourage people from Sky Watcher from being more open with the UAP community.

Then came the viral part. Coulthart said he thinks disclosure is very likely to come from the public before it comes from government, and that the White House is wrestling with the issue. "I know the president knows full well now about the existence of the legacy retrieval and reverse engineering program," he said, adding that it is being overseen by people at a very high level in the president's office, particularly Devin Nunes, whom he described as chair of the intelligence committee in the Senate in the National Security Council.

Coulthart went further. He said he believes it's more likely than not that the phenomenon will reveal itself, because people who claim to be in touch with it give him a sense it is becoming more overt as part of a steady conditioning. He said he wouldn't be surprised if disclosure happened in a mass CE5 or UAP summoning event. He also pointed to what he said David Grusch has admitted publicly, a cold war between America, Russia, China and other nations over control of non-human technology.

Why I find Coulthart's claim about Trump hard to trust

Saying Trump is now aware of the legacy program could mean two things. Somebody told Trump about it, but that says nothing about whether he believes it or whether it's valid. You could say I was told about the legacy program. So what? That doesn't mean I believe it.

There are also conflicting statements about what Trump knows. While Coulthart says this, Jay Stratton is on a book tour saying Trump doesn't know anything. So which is it?

Then there's Coulthart himself. A couple of years ago, he was speaking at an event, not on NewsNation, and said Trump had been threatened, and that this was why he hadn't come forward with disclosure. In that version, Trump already knew everything. I remember covering it, though I couldn't find the clip again. If I'm remembering it right, Coulthart already said Trump knew about the legacy program, and now he's saying Trump only just learned about it. It's easy to have a short memory in ufology, and that makes accountability hard.

Devin Nunes is not on the National Security Council

What Coulthart said about Devin Nunes isn't accurate. UFO researcher Dean Johnson, who is credible in my opinion, pointed out that Nunes is not part of the National Security Council. According to Johnson, Nunes chairs the President's Intelligence Advisory Board, a low-profile panel made up mostly of private citizens that advises the president on intelligence matters.

Johnson added that Nunes has no operational authority over any intelligence community organization, although the panel has fairly broad authority to gather intelligence-related information. I checked this for myself. Nunes, an American businessman and politician, has served as chairman of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board since January 20, 2025, and as chief executive officer of Trump Media and Technology Group. He doesn't work for the National Security Council. No offense to Ross, but these statements are sound bites, and we don't know how valid they are.

Did David Grusch work for the CIA? Coulthart says it was a slip of the tongue

In the same episode, a viewer question asked whether David Grusch misspoke on The Joe Rogan Experience when he appeared to say he worked at the CIA. Coulthart said he had no doubt it was a slip of the tongue, adding that "David Grusch has never worked for the CIA." He said Grusch's wife did at one stage work for the CIA, which Grusch has been open about, and that he suspects the agency has caused Grusch a lot of grief.

Coulthart said it's a matter of public record that Grusch was a GS-15 with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, attached at one stage to the UAP Task Force. He said there's no connection at all with the agency and that he is very, very confident about that.

I went back to the Rogan interview, and Grusch did say it. Slowed down, he says he was a "GS-15 in the CIA, colonel equivalent civilian." That's an odd slip of the tongue. Who mistakenly says they worked for the CIA? Still, let's give him the benefit of the doubt. Someone in his position has all these acronyms in his head, so it's possible. A GS-15 at the CIA is a real thing, a high-level senior managerial, supervisory or specialized expert rank in the federal general schedule system.

Grusch's own comments about the CIA

The slip is interesting when you consider what Grusch has said about the agency. In one interview he said it had come to his attention that some actors within intelligence agencies, including the DIA and CIA, were blocking the president's appointed team from accessing and controlling historical records. Elsewhere he said, "Unfortunately, the CIA has a lot of skeletons in its closets," and that the crash retrieval issue is one of them.

Then there are Grusch's medical records, which came out after he testified to Congress, with his PTSD used against him. I think that was atrocious, and it's one thing I defend Grusch on. Someone has PTSD, they get help, and then it's used against them. I'm all for going after Grusch's claims, but we have to be reasonable and human here.

Does any of this mean Grusch did work for the CIA? I don't know. There are some interesting clues pointing that way, but I'm not saying that's it. It could have been a slip of the tongue, and Coulthart is denying it.

Coulthart says Jay Stratton's book raises more questions than answers

Coulthart was also asked about Jay Stratton's new book and his Fox News interview. Coulthart described Stratton as the former head of the UAP Task Force and a former senior Pentagon official, widely respected for being candid in the disclosure documentary made by Dan Farah and narrated by Luis Elizondo. He said the book doesn't go much further than the documentary, though it has a few points worth reinforcing.

According to Coulthart, Stratton says he has seen non-human beings and craft, and that he was briefed that bodies and craft were recovered in the 1947 Roswell crash. Coulthart said he was waiting for Bret Baier to ask where Stratton saw them, and those questions weren't asked. He said Stratton is categorical that these objects aren't Russian, Chinese or American, and that he believes non-human intelligences have been engaging with this planet for a long time.

Coulthart wants Stratton deposed in a public hearing. "I guess for me, his book raises more questions than answers," he said, adding that his team has approached Stratton's publisher, HarperCollins, for weeks without hearing back. Coulthart also didn't do an interview with Dan Farah for The Age of Disclosure, so it makes some sense that Stratton isn't going on. Still, it's weird. I'd love to see them together, with Coulthart saying his sources say Trump knows about the legacy program and Stratton saying he doesn't.

Jay Stratton's book attacks fake whistleblowers, and I think it fits him

I may have found a clue as to why Stratton isn't talking to Coulthart, thanks to a passage from the book shared on Twitter. Stratton writes that a new layer of the disinformation campaign comes from so-called whistleblowers in the social media and podcast arena, often urged on by bad actors doing the legacy programs' bidding. He says they spin sensational tales that a hungry online community eats up, and that "these planted phonies undermine the impact of the real deal whistleblowers and confuse the public."

My theory is that Coulthart has interviewed whistleblowers Stratton doesn't find credible, like Jake Barber and David Grusch. That's my opinion, and I don't think you'll ever see Stratton and Grusch together. But to me this is the pot calling the kettle black. Stratton writes that some of these people "simply find the momentary fame appealing and plan to monetize it somehow." That sounds like someone putting out a book and a TV deal. And for fantastical stories, Stratton has talked about a 9-foot being at his house, orbs attacking his son, and non-human intelligent life coming to his home to investigate him and involve his family.

Stratton also writes that some of this fiction has found its way into testimony before Congress. So he's calling out everyone who has testified, while presenting himself as the real deal. If Stratton isn't afraid to call people out for their fantastical stories, nobody should be afraid to call him out for his. Everything in that passage could be applied to him. I could have told you David Grusch wrote it about Jay Stratton.

And why doesn't Stratton name names? If he's here for the truth, he should tell us who these fake whistleblowers are. Instead he avoids the truth and hits us with confusion, which is exactly what he says the phonies do. It's almost like he's confessing while pointing the finger.