Is ‘Dronegate’ A Chinese Psyop?

Mysterious drone sightings continue over US cities and military bases, with their origins remaining unknown (at least to the public), even as the federal government insists there is no national security threat. 

We have offered readers multiple theories, from a drone psyop to push through H.R.8610 (Counter-UAS Authority Security, Safety, and Reauthorization Act of 2024) and nuclear drone “sniffers.” Some lawmakers even pushed the wild idea of an Iranian “mothership” drone carrier off the East Coast. 

At the beginning of last week, former US Navy Lt. and F/A-18F pilot Ryan Graves appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast, dismissing claims that drone sightings in the New Jersey-New York skies were “sniffers” searching for radioactive devices.

Then President-elect Donald Trump told reporters, ” The government knows what is happening. Look, our military knows where they took off from, and for some reason, they don’t want to comment. And I think they would be better off commenting on what it is. Our military knows, and our president knows, and for some reason, they want to keep people in suspense.” 

Shortly thereafter, we coined the term “Dronegate” to describe the ongoing situation.

Let’s not forget to end the week, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul beefed up the number of New York National Guard members patrolling NYC subway stations, marking the largest military presence in the city’s subway system since the aftermath of 9/11. We asked the question if this was in response to a terror threat, such as mounting risks of pre-trained terrorists, now possibly active in cells nationwide. 

With many different theories floating around, entrepreneur David Friedberg of the All-In podcast explained this could actually be a psyop by China to crush America’s rising drone economy. 

Here’s the theory (courtesy of All-In): 

“Right now, the US has a significant regulatory burden on drone utilization in a commercial setting.”

“Meanwhile, you’ve got countries like China rocketing ahead. The drone delivery business in China is already $30B per year.”

“And they’re also launching a pretty significant fleet of what we would call eVTOLs or flying cars.”

“The expectation is that by 2030, there will be 100K flying cars moving people around in China. And these are huge efficiency gains.”

“And in the US, the reason that these things haven’t taken off, and the reason we don’t have a large drone industry, which is clearly emerging and is going to be a huge economic driver for China and others around the world, is simply the regulatory restrictions.”

“If you were going to try and mess with the US’s ability to move forward with the drone economy, you would probably try and wreak some havoc, stoke some fear, and get people to say, ‘Hey, this doesn’t seem cool. What’s going on? I don’t like that there’s all these drones in the sky. I’m freaking out.'”

“And try and get the regulators to come in and say, ‘Hey, we’re banning drones.'”

🚨Friedberg’s Drone Conspiracy Theory: A Psyop by China to Crush America’s Drone Economy?@friedberg explains:

 ”Right now, the US has a significant regulatory burden on drone utilization in a commercial setting.”

“Meanwhile, you’ve got countries like China rocketing ahead.… pic.twitter.com/nTGegSABZj

— The All-In Podcast (@theallinpod) December 22, 2024

Let’s not forget that the Chinese were active with drones over Langley Air Force Base in Virginia last year, as well as their spy balloon that traversed the Lower 48 in 2023.