Defense Department officials have reportedly been butting heads with aviation authorities as the Pentagon considers moving a high-powered laser system within Washington airspace to protect Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth from drones.
Pentagon insiders told The New York Times on Tuesday that talks are ongoing about deploying the laser system following reports of unusual drone activity near Fort McNair in the southwest of the district. Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, among others, currently live on the base.
Those sightings have apparently raised alarm about prospective surveillance of top military and government officials amid President Trump’s ongoing war in the Middle East.
The airspace above D.C. is one of the busiest in the country and was the site of a fatal collision between a military helicopter and a commercial airliner that claimed 67 lives just days into the second Trump administration.
The laser system has reportedly already proven a source of contention between the Federal Aviation Administration, under increased scrutiny following that crash, and the Pentagon.
The FAA remains wary of the system’s existing deployment in similarly busy airspaces over the Mexican border, where Hegseth’s department has used the lasers in an effort to disrupt drug cartel drone activity.
That wrangling comes amid a broader trend of top Trump administration officials moving into secure military housing in the D.C. area.
Several Trump officials have swapped out luxurious Washington townhouses for military digs, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, as well as outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who sparked backlash after it emerged she’d been living at a residence ordinarily reserved for top members of the Navy.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Office of Management and Budget chief Russell Vought are reportedly also considering a move to military housing.
Officials have claimed this serves as a precaution amid rising political violence across the country. Critics describe it as a hallmark of growing autocratic tendencies under the second Trump administration.
“It is something you never see in a democracy,” Harvard University Professor Steven Levitsky, who studies democratic threats, told the NYT earlier this month. “Government officials live on military bases or other sort of fortified zones in authoritarian regimes.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the Department of Defense for comment on this story.
