BALLOONS GALORE

Intel Officials Kept Mum on 3 Suspicious Balloons Spotted During Trump Presidency: Report

The incursions were never relayed to the president because Pentagon analysts couldn’t determine exactly what the objects were, according to a new report.

Intelligence officials during the Trump presidency received reports of at least three incursions into U.S. airspace by mysterious objects suspected to be Chinese spy balloons but never reported them to the president, according to The Wall Street Journal. Though some at the Pentagon feared the balloons were being used to jam radar over military installations, they were never able to “be assertive” in identifying the objects, one official told the Journal. China’s floating espionage program has been at the center of national security concerns in recent weeks, after a spy balloon was spotted over Montana in January and then shot down days later off the coast of South Carolina. The objects sighted during the Trump administration were allegedly smaller and hovered at lower altitude over bases in California, Virginia, and Guam, rather than passing over the continental U.S. When questioned about the earlier balloons, Chinese embassy officials pointed to a statement claiming the balloon shot down by the Biden administration was not intended for surveillance.