President Donald Trump shares update on drones seen flying over New Jersey
The White House on Tuesday revealed that some of the drones seen flying over New Jersey and other parts of the country in November were authorized to be flown by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt shared an update “directly” from President Donald Trump that clarified the origin of the drones, which caused a national stir and captured headlines for weeks late last year.
“After research and study, the drones that were flying over New Jersey in large numbers were authorized by the FAA for research and various other reasons,” Leavitt said.
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White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt holds her first news conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on Jan. 28, 2025, in Washington, D.C. At 27 years old, Leavitt is the youngest White House press secretary in U.S. history. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
In addition to those authorized by the FAA, other drones flown by hobbyists were sighted, and that number increased as curiosity about the phenomenon grew, the White House said.
“This was not the enemy,” Leavitt said.
The drone sightings in November and December originally raised public concerns and even attracted the attention of the FBI.
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Photos taken in the Bay Shore section of Toms River of what appear to be large drones hovering in the area at high altitudes in New Jersey on Sunday, December 8, 2024. The drones seemed to be well above the 400 feet height FAA regulations allow. (Doug Hood/Asbury Park Press)
“The FBI Newark, NJ State Police, and NJ Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness are asking for the public to report any information related to the recent sightings of possible drones flying in several areas along the Raritan River,” a Dec. 3 FBI statement noted.
The Federal Aviation Administration even issued temporary flight restrictions after the large number of sightings, prohibiting drone flights over parts of New Jersey.
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President Donald Trump speaks to the media after signing executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 23, 2025. Trump had vowed to reveal the source of drones sighted over New Jersey and elsewhere. (ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images)
However, an FBI official later said that of the roughly 5,000 tips they received related to reported drone sightings, “less than 100 leads have been generated and deemed worthy of further investigative activity.”
In mid-December, a DHS official said they’re “confident that many of the reported drone sightings are, in fact, manned aircraft being misidentified as drones,” ABC News reported.
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An analysis by the White House, in coordination with the FBI and state and local officials, concluded that “lawful, legal, commercial hobbyist and even law enforcement aircraft activity” was responsible for the sightings, former White House national security communications adviser John Kirby previously told Fox News.
Trump had vowed to get to the bottom of the matter once he assumed office.
“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 from the Oval Office last week. “They had a lot of them flying over Bedminster, which is interesting,” referring to his club in New Jersey.
Fox News Digital’s Mollie Markowitz contributed to this report.
