NEW: Trump Addresses Mysterious Drone Sightings, Vows To Release Extensive Report

While meeting with Republican governors at his Mar-A-Lago estate on Thursday evening, President-elect Donald Trump vowed to release an extensive report on mysterious drone sightings that plagued New Jersey and surrounding states last month. Trump suggested that information would be provided to the public “about one day” after he is inaugurated for the second time on January 20.

Trump hosted 22 of the 27 Republican governors in the United States for a dinner at his Palm Beach resort as part of a broad effort to sure up support for his agenda before he takes office. Montana Governor Greg Gianforte told reporters that some of the missing governors were unable to attend due to inauguration proceedings, while at least one governor was unable to make the trip due to a snowstorm. Gianforte added that those in attendance were “thrilled to accept the president-elect’s invitation” and looked forward to a “collaborative, working relationship, which we have not had for four years” with the Biden Administration.

“It’s been a long period without cooperation from Washington,” Gianforte told reporters outside the closed-door meeting. “So, we’re looking forward to the new administration coming in. We have a lot of business to get done on behalf of our states. We’re just pleased to be here to meet with the president. ”The president-elect previously sat for a lengthy meeting with Republican senators just a day before, while he has also held a series of meetings with groups of House Republicans in recent weeks.

After the governors’ meeting concluded, the president-elect took a handful of questions for reporters and discussed the meeting’s agenda. At one point in the press conference, Trump vowed to release information about the mysterious drone sightings that plagued New Jersey, as well as parts of New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut in the weeks following the Thanksgiving holiday. Mysterious drone activity has also become an issue around sensitive military sites in a number of states over the last few years, though details concerning the origin of the drones or their purposes have been scarce.  “I’m going to give you a report on drones about one day into the administration,” Trump said of the drone sightings. “Because I think it’s ridiculous that they are not telling you about what is going on with the drones.”

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin welcomed disclosures and expressed frustration with the federal government’s silence over the drone activity. “We are home to the largest naval base in the world and Quantico and we house a lot of the SEAL teams and have a huge national security infrastructure,” Youngkin stated. “And now, for two years running, we have had drone incursion over secure airspace, and we still don’t know why,” he added. “I think that’s absolutely unacceptable.”

Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry also noted that his administration has become increasingly concerned about drone activity over the state’s “We brought that to the attention of the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration], and we’ve been asking the FAA to give these states the ability to mitigate these drones, and it’s sitting on some bureaucrat’s desk and that’s real,” Landry said during the press conference.

The Biden Administration has provided very little information on the spike in drone sightings across the Northeast. White House and Defense Department officials have claimed that the drones do not pose any national security threats to the United States, while they have also claimed that they are not being operated by a foreign adversary. Officials have suggested that the increase of sightings was due to a mixture of lawful, civilian-operated drone activity and misidentified airplanes, among other things.

President-elect Trump has been highly critical of the Biden Administration’s response to breaches of American airspace. In one notable instance in 2023, a Chinese spy balloon was allowed to fly across the United States after it was spotted over sensitive military sites in Montana. The drone was ultimately shot down over the Atlantic Ocean, though Trump stated that it should have been downed much earlier. In response to last month’s drone sightings, the president-elect called for similar action.

“Mystery Drone sightings all over the Country. Can this really be happening without our government’s knowledge. I don’t think so!” Trump said of the drone sightings in a TruthSocial post last month. “Let the public know, and now. Otherwise, shoot them down!!!”

An unidentified drone flies over the Bedminster, New Jersey area on December 3, 2024

On November 18, the FAA first received reports of drone activity within Morris County, the border of which lies about two miles north of Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in Somerset County, according to a report from Fox News. After requests from “federal security partners,” the agency issued two temporary flight restrictions, or TFRs, for the state. Drone sightings were initially reported around military sites, including Picatinny Arsenal, a major U.S. Army hub in Dover, New Jersey, which primarily focuses on research and development via its CCDCAC armaments center.

While Biden Administration officials have insisted that unidentified drone activity poses no threat to the public or national security, Republican lawmakers remain unconvinced in the days leading up to Trump’s inauguration on January 20. On Monday, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) reported that her flight into Washington D.C. was diverted due to drone sightings. “Before landing, our pilot announced he had to fly in from another direction due to ‘unauthorized drone activity’ over the White House,” the congresswoman wrote in an X post.