Trump Officials: We Were Never Informed of Such Balloons

Chinese spy balloons soared above the United States while former President Donald Trump was in office, Biden administration officials said Saturday. However, five senior Trump administration officials told Politico the Department of Defense never informed them of such incidents.

"I don't ever recall somebody coming into my office or reading anything that the Chinese had a surveillance balloon above the United States," Trump's second Defense Secretary, Mark Esper, told CNN on Friday. "I would remember that, for sure. My focus was on implementing the national defense strategy to take on the Chinese as the greatest strategic threat facing our country. So I was keen on everything Chinese.

We set up a red cell within the Pentagon to deal with it. We reoriented the military's doctrine in how we train and fight, all those things focused on the Chinese. So I would be curious as to why Chinese surveillance balloons were overflying the United States. So that would have caught my attention for sure. I don't recall it ever happening."