The White House on Tuesday revealed that some of the drones seen flying over New Jersey and other parts of the country in November were authorized to be flown by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt shared an update “directly” from President Donald Trump that clarified the origin of the drones, which caused a national stir and captured headlines for weeks late last year. 

“After research and study, the drones that were flying over New Jersey in large numbers were authorized by the FAA for research and various other reasons,” Leavitt said. 

President Donald Trump speaks to the media after signing executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 23, 2025. Trump had vowed to reveal the source of drones sighted over New Jersey and elsewhere.  (ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images)

However, an FBI official later said that of the roughly 5,000 tips they received related to reported drone sightings, “less than 100 leads have been generated and deemed worthy of further investigative activity.” 

In mid-December, a DHS official said they’re “confident that many of the reported drone sightings are, in fact, manned aircraft being misidentified as drones,” ABC News reported.

An analysis by the White House, in coordination with the FBI and state and local officials, concluded that “lawful, legal, commercial hobbyist and even law enforcement aircraft activity” was responsible for the sightings, former White House national security communications adviser John Kirby previously told Fox News.

Trump had vowed to get to the bottom of the matter once he assumed office. 

“I can’t imagine it’s an enemy, or there would have been, you know, people would have gotten blown up, all of them. Maybe they were testing things. I don’t know why. They wouldn’t have said what it was,” Trump said from the Oval Office last week. “They had a lot of them flying over Bedminster, which is interesting,” referring to his club in New Jersey.

Fox News Digital’s Mollie Markowitz contributed to this report.