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President-elect Donald Trump vowed to give more transparency on the recent surge in mysterious drone sightings "about one day" into his second term as president later this month.
“I’m going to give you a report on drones about one day into the administration,” Trump told a room of Republican governors at his Mar-a-Lago resort Thursday (January 9) evening via the Hill. “Because I think it’s ridiculous that they are not telling you about what is going on with the drones.”
Several Republican governors in attendance also voiced their frustration over the lack of clarity from the federal government regarding the recent reported flyovers in the Northeast. Last month, Trump accused President Joe Biden and other government officials of hiding information.
“The government knows what is happening,” Trump said during a lengthy press conference in Palm Beach, Florida, on Monday (December 16) via the New York Post after the Biden administration had publicly claimed to be unaware of the drones' origin.
“Look, our military knows where they took off from — if it’s a garage, they can go right into that garage," he added. "They know where it came from and where it went, and for some reason they don’t want to comment. “And I think they’d be better off saying what it is. Our military knows and our president knows. And for some reason, they want to keep people in suspense.”
Trump refused to comment on whether he was personally briefed on the drones when asked by a reporter at the time.
"I don't want to comment on that," he responded.
“I can’t imagine it’s the enemy,” Trump later added. “Because if it was the enemy, they’d blast it out — even if they were late, they’d blast it.”
“Something strange is going on,” he continued. “For some reason they don’t want to tell the people, and they should.”
The drones were spotted along the East Coast, primarily in New Jersey, which had at least 3,000 sightings reported in December alone, though there have been sightings reported as early as November 18. The Biden administration claimed the unidentified objects were planes or helicopters being mistaken for drones, while some experts warned that they could be coming from an adversary, though the Pentagon denied these claims and authorities reaffirmed that there is no known threat stemming from their presence.