Unidentified drones were allegedly detected above the Washington Army base where Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth live, according to three insiders who leaked the information to the Washington Post. Officials were unable to determine where they originated, two of the leakers said.
Multiple drones were allegedly spotted over Fort Lesley J. McNair on a single night over the last 10 days, prompting increased security measures and a White House discussion on how to respond, said senior admin official “who spoke on the condition of anonymity.”
The drones over Fort McNair prompted officials to weigh relocating Rubio and Hegseth, two of the people briefed said. The senior administration official said the secretaries haven’t moved. Their quarters on the base were publicly reported by multiple outlets in October.
Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell declined to discuss the drones. “The department cannot comment on the secretary’s movements for security reasons, and reporting on such movements is grossly irresponsible,” he said. -WaPo
And in leaks spanning both the Trump and Biden administrations, similar drone threats surfaced after Trump took out Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in 2020, according to the report. There were also unidentified drones spotted by Trump’s Secret Service detail during the 2024 presidential race (or they may have just been inebriated?) during a news conference in LA and a motorcade ride through rural western Pennsylvania, where a bunch of regular people own drones.
The news comes after officials locked down facilities at MacDill AFB in Tampa, Florida – home to US Central Command, which is conducting US military operations in Iran – after a suspicious package resulted in the closure of the base’s visitors centers on Monday, while a second, unspecified security incident on Wednesday left the base under a shelter-in-place order for several hours.
“To ensure the safety and security of our people and the mission, commanders adjust their installation’s security posture in accordance with local threat assessments,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
The Post also reports that a leaked diplomatic cable from the State Department on Tuesday ordered all US diplomatic posts worldwide to “immediately” undertake security evaluations, citing “the ongoing and developing situation in the Middle East and the potential for spillover effects.”
Fort McNair is home to the National Defense University as well as some of the Pentagon’s most senior military officials. While it has not traditionally housed political leaders, several Trump officials, including outgoing DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, have been calling area bases home. McNair is close to Capitol Hill and the White House.
For those keeping track, that’s at least six leakers, leaking to the Post. That’s a lot of ‘trust us, bro.’
Also, and probably unrelated, remember all those weird ‘car-sized’ drones reported in Dec. 2024 that had zero explanation? Pepperidge Farm remembers.
