Trump looks to spend half a billion dollars on anti-drone defense at 2026 World Cup

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Donald Trump’s administration is pulling $500 million from Homeland Security’s massive budget to fortify American skies from drone threats, part of a government-wide anti-drone security strategy to prepare for the 2026 World Cup and other high-profile events.

The move, first reported by Politico, will let state and local governments tap into federal funds to develop anti-drone defenses — including the potential to jam devices or disable them entirely — ahead of dozens of soccer matches across North America.

Federal agencies currently only have authority to intercept and disable unmanned aircraft in restricted areas, though members of Congress are mulling legislation that could expand that authority to state and local law enforcement. If that fails, the Trump administration is considering a backup plan through the Department of Justice that could authorize local cops to take down drones.

“Everybody from the governors to different commissioners of the police in these different cities to the stadium chief security officer say that this is something that they need in order to protect the [World Cup] sites,” White House’s FIFA World Cup 2026 Task Force director Andrew Giuliani told Politico.

The Trump administration is using $500 million from Homeland Security’s budget to support a nationwide anti-drone defense campaign ahead of next year’s World Cup games

The Trump administration is using $500 million from Homeland Security’s budget to support a nationwide anti-drone defense campaign ahead of next year’s World Cup games (REUTERS)

The task force — which coordinates with Homeland Security, the Justice Department and National Security Council — was formed by Trump’s June executive order in an effort to “increase enforcement of current laws to deter two types of individuals: evil doers and idiots," counterterrorism director Sebastian Gorka said at the time.

The Independent has requested comment from FIFA.

State officials and Democratic and Republican members of Congress have been pushing for months for the administration to take domestic drone threats more seriously.

Senator Gary Peters, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee, pushed Homeland Security Kristi Noem on the issue during a May hearing, noting that “we’re hosting some very large events in this country that will challenge our ability to secure that many large events at one time.”

Democrats and Republicans have been calling on the federal government to take drone threats more seriously, pointing to vulnerabilities in U.S. infrastructure and industrial and defense sites, with local law enforcement effectively blocked from being able to take them down

Democrats and Republicans have been calling on the federal government to take drone threats more seriously, pointing to vulnerabilities in U.S. infrastructure and industrial and defense sites, with local law enforcement effectively blocked from being able to take them down (AFP via Getty Images)

The World Cup is the priority, for now — FIFA will host more than 100 matches across Canada, Mexico and the United States next year— but anti-drone funding is expected to protect a wider range of events as well as infrastructure and industrial and defense sites.

"With large-scale public events such as the Olympics and the World Cup on the horizon, taking action on airspace security has never been timelier," White House Office of Science and Technology Policy chief Michael Kratsios told reporters in June.

In a July letter to the White House, New York Governor Kathy Hochul told Trump that the federal government is “unprepared and poorly postured” to respond to drone threats, pointing to the bizarre appearances of unmanned craft on the East Coast last year as well as persistent threats of drone attacks from Russia’s military into Europe.

A September letter from 30 Democratic and Republican governors called on congressional leadership for “robust legislative action to address these vulnerabilities and enhance security.”

“While the use of drones has proven valuable to governments for a wide variety of important purposes, including public safety and law enforcement, disaster recovery, and environmental monitoring, these systems are also increasingly being used for things like espionage, stalking, and other kinds of attacks,” they wrote.

The use of commercial and homemade drones during Russia’s war in Ukraine is “a stark reminder of their lethal potential,” the governors added.

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