Since November, swarms of drones have filled the night sky over New Jersey, with multiple reports of unusual drone sightings made elsewhere across the country. Today, the White House revealed details behind that drone mystery, although more questions remain unanswered.
“These are FAA-approved research drones and other authorized flights,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, relaying the president’s remarks during a briefing. The clarification comes amid growing public concern and speculation about the unusual drone activity reported in recent weeks.
“This is not the enemy,” Trump stated through Leavitt in a bid to quell public fears and dispel rumors being spread about the flying devices. Online speculation helped spread rumors that there may be some kind of foreign or malicious involvement, but the White House made it clear that wasn’t the case in today’s remarks.
Fox News’ Peter Doocy questioned President Donald Trump about the drones on Monday, asking, “Anything with these drones — is it anything to be worried about?”
“I would like to find out what it is and tell the people. In fact, I’d like to do that,” President Trump responded. He then redirected to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. “Could we find out what that was, Susie? Why don’t we find out immediately?”
The President said, “I can’t imagine it’s an enemy, or there would have been, you know, people would have gotten blown up, all of them. Maybe they were testing things. I don’t know why. They wouldn’t have said what it was,” Trump said. “They had a lot of them flying over Bedminster, which is interesting,” referring to his golf club in northern New Jersey.
The White House didn’t elaborate on who or what entity was behind the surge of drone activity in New Jersey’s airspace but did stress they were authorized flights operating under the knowledge and permission of U.S. authorities.
