Former Trump officials detected Chinese spy balloons during Trump presidency: WSJ

17 February 2023

Officials under former President Donald Trump's administration suspected flying objects hovering over United States Air Force bases during his presidency, Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports.

CNN reported earlier this week "new documents from the U.S. intelligence agencies detail previous China spy balloons under Donald Trump's presidency, which he has denied hearing about on his Truth Social social media account," noting the former president "made repeated denials that he had been told about the floating craft."

This comes after three floating objects were recently detected traversing United States territory and shot down by U.S. military — which President Joe Biden says were not Chinese spy balloons, but instead "likely tied to private companies or related to recreation or scientific research," according to WSJ.

Regarding why Trump administration officials kept quiet about the objects, officials say, "the data on these prior suspected balloons was collected at the time from a variety of Defense Department sources, including intelligence assets"

They further note although agencies "share that type of information," it's not mandatory, especially "when dealing with a highly specialized issue such as unidentified aerial phenomena."

AlterNet reports:

For days, former President Donald Trump and his allied Republicans have railed against President Joe Biden for not shooting down a Chinese spy balloon as it made its way across the United States. According to the Pentagon, the balloon first came into the U.S. space in Alaska at the end of January, but Biden wasn't told about it until several days later. At that point, it was nearing Montana when Biden told the military to shoot it down when safe to do so.

Recently, Commander of U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, U.S. Air Force General Glen D. VanHerck, said the objects that hovered over the United States during Trump's presidency went undetected due to a "domain awareness gap," but declined to elaborate any further.

Now, according to WSJ, some Pentagon officials were aware of the floating balloons when they appeared, but "harbored concerns that they were related to China, believing Beijing was using them to test radar-jamming systems over sensitive U.S. military sites."

Officials assert "the suspected balloons detected during the Trump era were smaller and flew at a much lower altitude and for a much shorter duration than the one downed on Feb. 4," and say the objects "were detected over Navy sites in Coronado, Calif., Norfolk, Va., and Guam."

However, the officials also note "unlike" the objects shot down off the coast" of South Carolina days ago, "these unidentified aerial objects didn’t travel across the country."

WATCH: Warmongering GOP congressman declares Chinese spy balloon a 'Sputnik moment' for America

According to a Pentagon spokesperson, Department of Defense intelligence officials detected the objects at the time, "but said that leadership wasn’t briefed on the matter."

WSJ reports:

Rep. Michael Waltz (R., Fla.) said recently that his office was informed about incursions near Florida and Texas, likely during the Trump era, but it remains unclear what type of systems were on those balloons — or if these incursions occurred in territorial waters or overflew land. It is also unclear if those incursions are separate from the ones observed by the former intelligence officials.

This week, the Biden Administration held briefings with former Trump administration officials including Mike Pompeo, who previously served as Secretary of State, and is set to schedule briefings for other top Trump administration officials who were "surprised" by the incidents.

Wall Street Journal's full report is available at this link.

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