Biden White House says Chinese spy balloons flew over US during Trump's ... trends now

Chinese spy balloons traveled across the continental United States during the Trump administration according to a senior administration official, but the details were only uncovered after Trump had left office. 

According to a senior administration official, balloons briefly traveled over the US at least three times during Trump's term but they were never shot down or publicly disclosed.

Trump, together with several of his national security and defense officials have rejected the claim, saying that it 'never happened.'

At least one flew over portions of Texas and Florida during the Trump administration with additional sightings near near Hawaii and Guam.

Trump compared the incident and ensuing diplomatic crisis to the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal that his successor, President Joe Biden, presided over in August 2021.

'The Chinese Balloon situation is a disgrace, just like the Afghanistan horror show, and everything else surrounding the grossly incompetent Biden Administration,' the former president wrote on his app Truth Social.

'They are only good at cheating in elections, and disinformation — and now they are putting out that a Balloon was put up by China during the Trump Administration, in order to take the 'heat' off the slow moving Biden fools. 

'China had too much respect for 'TRUMP' for this to have happened, and it NEVER did. JUST FAKE DISINFORMATION!' 

On Sunday, a defense official explained how US intelligence and not the Biden administration, made the assessment that such balloons had cross into the country.

'The information was discovered after the [Trump] administration left,' the official told Fox News.

'These balloons are all part of a Chinese fleet of balloons developed to conduct surveillance operations, which have also violated the sovereignty of other countries,' the official explained, 'often undertaken at the direction of the People's Liberation Army,' the armed wing of the Chinese Communist Party.

According to the official, Chinese balloons have been spotted over several countries across five continents, including Asia, South Asia, and Europe. 

The official also explained how the balloons went undetected at the time. 

'Two things can be true at once: this happened, and it wasn't detected,' they said noting that the others did not fly for as long as the one that recently flew across the country.

Multiple Trump officials aside from the former president have disputed the Pentagon's assessment and relevant media reports.

'It's not true,' former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe flatly told Fox News on Sunday morning.

'Do you remember during the Trump administration, when photographers on the ground and commercial airline pilots were talking about a spy balloon over the United States that people could look up and see?'

He added, 'I don't remember that either. Because it didn't happen.'

The ex-intelligence official called the balloon that was recently popped 'unprecedented.'

'We have never had a circumstance where an adversary has had spy craft over our country our continental United States posing a threat for the better part of a week straight,' Ratcliffe said.