Trump Says He Canceled Trip to New Jersey Golf Course Amid Drone Sightings

Former President Donald Trump during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., on Aug. 8, 2024. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

President-elect Donald Trump on Monday said that he canceled a trip to his golf course in New Jersey over a rash of recent drone sightings in the state, while calling for more government transparency on the reports.

Since November, locals in New Jersey have reported swarms of drones, prompting alarm from elected officials in both New Jersey and New York. Federal officials have not said where the drones originated, but that they are not a threat to public safety or national security.

“The government knows what is happening. Look, our military knows where they took off from. If it’s a garage, they can go right into that garage. They know where it came from and where it went,” Trump said at a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago residence on Monday.

Trump called for more transparency from the outgoing Biden administration and federal law enforcement officials.

“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 [what] our president knows,” the president-elect said.

“And for some reason, they want to keep people in suspense. I can’t imagine it’s the enemy.”

At one point in the press event, Trump said that he will not travel to his residence and golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, due to the unmanned aerial vehicles.

The drones, he added, are “very, very close to Bedminster. I think maybe I won’t spend the weekend in Bedminster. I decided to cancel my trip.”

Over the weekend, Trump wrote on Truth Social that if the U.S. government doesn’t know the origin of the drones, then they should likely be shot down. In response, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Sunday in an ABC News interview that federal agencies don’t have that type of authority.

However, it’s not just Trump who has called for the federal government to provide more information or take action amid the drone sightings.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) have both gone out on drone hunts, hoping for answers. Murphy wrote on social media platform X that he went out with state police officials in West Trenton, New Jersey, to survey the area for drones.

“The public deserves clear answers—we will keep pushing the federal government for more information and resources,” the governor wrote on Sunday night.

Murphy and law enforcement officials have stressed that the drones don’t appear to be a threat to public safety, but many state and municipal lawmakers have nonetheless called for stricter rules about who can fly the unmanned aircraft.

Federal officials will send high-technology drone detection systems to New York, wrote Gov. Kathy Hochul over the weekend, coming about a day after an airport in the Hudson Valley was closed due to a drone sighting.

The FBI is among several agencies investigating and has asked residents to share videos, photos, and other information they may have about the drones. The White House has said a review of the reported sightings shows that many of them are actually manned aircraft being flown lawfully.

The federal Homeland Security Department and FBI also said in a joint statement they have no evidence that the sightings pose “a national security or public safety threat or have a foreign nexus.”

In his ABC News interview, Mayorkas confirmed that people are actually seeing drones in some cases, noting that some sightings are of “manned aircraft that are commonly mistaken for drones.”

“There’s no question that people are seeing drones,” the secretary said Sunday morning. “I want to assure the American public that we in the federal government have deployed additional resources, personnel, technology to assist the New Jersey State Police in addressing the drone sightings.”

The Epoch Times contacted the FBI and DHS for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.