The New Jersey Drones: Two Months of Panic, and a One-Line Answer From the White House

On January 28, 2025, in the first press briefing of President Trump's second term, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said she had news "directly from the president of the United States."

It was about the drones. The ones that had kept New Jersey staring at the sky since November.

"After research and study, the drones that were flying over New Jersey in large numbers were authorized to be flown by the FAA for research and various other reasons," she said, according to ABC News. "This was not the enemy."

That was the end of the official story. Whether it was the end of the actual story is another question.

How it started

The Morris County Prosecutor's Office first reported the drone activity on November 19, 2024, ABC News reported. The War Zone dated the first reports to November 18.

By early December, NBC News was reporting drones hovering over northern New Jersey, according to The War Zone. Temporary flight restrictions went up over Bedminster, where Trump has a golf club, and over the Army's Picatinny Arsenal, according to ABC.

Then the sightings multiplied, and so did the theories.

The "mothership" and the denials

Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a New Jersey Republican, told Fox News the drones were tied to Iran and launched from a "mothership" off the East Coast. He cited "very high sources, very qualified sources, very responsible sources," according to Spectrum News.

On December 11, the Pentagon shut that down. "There is not any truth to that," deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh said. "There is no Iranian ship off the coast of the United States."

She said the Pentagon's "initial assessment here is that these are not drones or activities that are coming from a foreign entity or adversary," Spectrum reported.

The next day, John Kirby, the White House national security communications adviser, went further. "We have no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or a public safety threat," he said, according to The War Zone. He said that "many of the reported sightings are actually manned aircraft that are being operated lawfully."

He also admitted the limit of what he knew. "I cannot characterize for you definitively what these sightings are."

An airport goes dark for an hour

On the night of Friday, December 13, the story jumped the Hudson.

Stewart International Airport, in New York's Orange County, closed its runways after the FAA reported a drone sighting. A Port Authority spokesperson said the runways shut around 9:40 p.m. and reopened at 10:45 p.m., NBC News reported. The FAA said there were no safety impacts to aircraft.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul didn't wait for an explanation. "This has gone too far," she said, and called on Congress to give state and local law enforcement counter-drone powers.

"Nothing anomalous"

On December 16, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the FAA and the Defense Department issued a joint statement. It was the most detailed answer the public would get for weeks.

The FBI had received more than 5,000 tips of reported drone sightings in a few weeks, generating about 100 leads, the agencies said. Their assessment was that the sightings "include a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones, and law enforcement drones," along with manned airplanes, helicopters and stars mistakenly reported as drones.

"We have not identified anything anomalous."

The agencies said they "do not assess the activity to date to present a national security or public safety risk" over civilian airspace in New Jersey or elsewhere in the Northeast.

There was one notable carve-out. The statement acknowledged "a limited number of visual sightings of drones over military facilities in New Jersey and elsewhere." And it ended with a request: "We urge Congress to enact counter-UAS legislation when it reconvenes."

Twenty-two no-fly zones

Two days later, the FAA went from reassurance to restriction.

From December 18, 2024, to January 17, 2025, the FAA banned drone flights over 22 New Jersey communities without special permission, citing "special security reasons," ABC News reported. The list included Jersey City, Bayonne, Camden, Edison, Elizabeth, Kearny, Clifton, Hamilton and Bridgewater.

The rules barred drones within one nautical mile of each site, from the ground up to 400 feet. The notices warned that the government may use "deadly force" against a drone posing an "imminent security threat," and that pilots who didn't comply could be "intercepted, detained, and interviewed."

A DHS spokesperson said the restrictions were issued "out of an abundance of caution," according to ABC.

If the activity posed no risk, why threaten deadly force? That was the question a lot of New Jersey was asking.

The transition and the answer

Trump had his own read. In December, he suggested the outgoing administration knew more than it was saying. "They know where it came from and where it went," he said. "And for some reason, they don't want to comment," ABC reported.

On January 9, speaking to Republican governors, he promised a drone report in his first days in office, saying "it's ridiculous that they are not telling you about what's going on with the drones."

Then came Leavitt's briefing. Beyond the FAA authorization, she said, "Many of these drones were also hobbyists, recreational and private individuals that enjoy flying drones." Of the escalation, she said, "In time, it got worse due to curiosity."

Two administrations, from opposite parties, landed in roughly the same place: lawful flights, misidentified aircraft and a public that kept looking up.

What we know, and what we don't

What we know

• Sightings began in mid-November 2024, and the FBI received more than 5,000 tips, producing about 100 leads.
• DHS, the FBI, the FAA and the Pentagon said they found nothing anomalous and no national security or public safety risk, while acknowledging some sightings over military facilities.
• The White House said in January 2025 that the drones flying over New Jersey were authorized by the FAA for research and other reasons.

What we don't

• Who operated the FAA-authorized drones, and what research they were doing. Leavitt did not say.
• What the "limited number" of drones over military facilities were, and whether those were among the authorized flights.
• Whether the sightings reported outside New Jersey were all lawful. Leavitt didn't address them.

An answer that explains everything and nothing

On paper, this is a solved case. Every official who weighed in, from Singh to Kirby to Leavitt, said the same thing in different words: not foreign, not hostile, mostly lawful, partly mistaken.

But "authorized by the FAA for research" is not a name, a program or a purpose. It arrived after an airport shutdown, deadly-force warnings and weeks of federal officials saying they couldn't characterize what people were seeing.

The New Jersey wave may be the clearest modern example of how a sighting flap really works. Some real drones, a lot of planes and stars, and an information vacuum that fills itself.

So, does "authorized by the FAA" settle it for you, or do you want to know exactly who was flying over New Jersey that winter? Tell us in the comments.

Sources

• DHS, FBI, FAA & DoD Joint Statement on Ongoing Response to Reported Drone Sightings — U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2024
• White House says NJ drones 'authorized' by the FAA: 'This was not the enemy' — ABC News via WABC-TV, 2025
• FAA bans drones from flying in parts of NJ until mid-January due to 'special security reasons' — WABC-TV, 2024
• Pentagon says 'there's not any truth' to congressman's claim mysterious New Jersey drones emerged from Iranian 'mothership' — Spectrum News, 2024
• None Of The New Jersey Visual Drone Sightings Have Been Corroborated: White House — The War Zone, 2024
• 'This has gone too far': N.Y. governor calls for federal assistance after mysterious drones shut down airport — NBC News, 2024