JUST when you thought this American presidential election could not get any more bizarre, President Donald Trump said yesterday that he wanted a “good strong look” at evidence of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) over the USA.

Appearing on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures programme, the Republican candidate for the election on November 3 was asked by host Maria Bartiromo about the Department of Defense’s announcement that, back in August, the Pentagon launched a task force to investigate UFO sightings, called the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF).

Trump said he had only heard of the force a couple of days ago. Bartiromo asked him “are there UFOs?”

The president, who has previously been sceptical about UFOs, replied: “Well I’m gonna have to check on that.

READ MORE: Donald Trump ‘sought loan to shore up’ Scottish golf resort

“I mean, I’ve heard that. I heard that two days ago, so I’ll check on that. I’ll take a good, strong look at that.”

Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) is the American military’s new name for UFOs. The Department of Defense (DoD) said it established the UAPTF to improve its understanding of, and gain insight into, the nature and origins of UAPs.

“The mission of the task force is to detect, analyse and catalogue UAPs that could potentially pose a threat to US national security,” the DoD said in a statement at the launch.”

DoD added: “As DoD has stated previously, the safety of our personnel and the security of our operations are of paramount concern. The Department of Defense and the military departments take any incursions by unauthorised aircraft into our training ranges or designated airspace very seriously and examine each report.

“This includes examinations of incursions that are initially reported as UAP when the observer cannot immediately identify what he or she is observing.”

At the end of his appearance on the Fox programme, President Trump said: “I’ll tell you this, we now have created a military the likes of which we’ve never had before, in terms of equipment.

READ MORE: Donald Trump refuses to take on Joe Biden in virtual presidential debate

“Russia, China, they’re all envious of what we’ve had. All built in the USA. We’ve rebuilt it, $2.5 trillion. As far as the other question, I’ll check on it. I heard about it two days ago actually.”

It emerged yesterday that President Trump may need some help from aliens or other supernatural phenomena if he is to retain the White House, for his Democrat opponent, Joe Biden, is reported to be in the best position in opinion polls ever of any candidate three weeks before election day.

Since scientific polling began in 1936, no candidate has held a lead as big as Biden’s at this stage of an election campaign, with CNN reporting that he has an average lead of ten points in polls nationally.

The president has been cleared to host a rally in Florida tonight.