Three Chinese spy balloons infiltrated the US during Trump administration trends now
Three Chinese spy balloons entered the US during the Trump administration, but they were never shot down or publicly disclosed.
In reporting the latest of the Chinese balloon shot down off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday, The US Department of Defense said three other of these crafts 'briefly transited the continental United States at least three times during the prior administration.'
The revelation startled Mark Esper, the former Secretary of Defense, and comes as Trump and other Republicans claimed he would have shot down the balloon while calling on Joe Biden to resign over the stalled attack on the craft.
One such Republican was US Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who tweeted on Saturday: 'I just spoke with our GREAT America First President Trump. He would have never allowed China to fly a spy balloon over our country and our military bases and assets.
'Pres Trump would have shot it down before it entered the US.'
The Department of Defense reported that three Chinese spy balloons entered US airspace during the Trump administration, a revelation that started the former president's own Secretary of Defense. Trump (left) has chastised Joe Biden (right) for not immediately shooting the craft when he first learned about it last week
US Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was among the Republicans claiming Trump would have shot down the balloon if he was president
Trump called on the balloon to be taken down and said that when he's back in the White House, he'll use the FBI and Justice Department to hunt down 'Chinese spies'
According to a senior Pentagon official, three balloons made it into the US during the Trump years, but never for as long as the one that recently flew across the country.
The balloon reportedly entered the US last week from Canada, hovering over Montana, which houses nuclear silos, as it made its way southeast before flying off the coast of South Carolina.
Esper told CNN that he was 'surprised' by the Pentagon's statement, saying he was never told about Chinese surveillance balloons entering the US when he served between July 2019 to November 2020.
'I don't ever recall somebody coming into my
