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Donald Trump’s administration is carving out $500 million from Homeland Security’s massive budget to bolster US skies threat of dronePart of the government’s comprehensive anti-drone security strategy Prepare for the 2026 World Cup and other high-profile events.
move, first reported by politicoWould let state and local governments use federal funds to develop anti-drone defenses — including the ability to jam the devices or disable them entirely — further. Dozens of soccer matches across North America.
Federal agencies currently have the authority to stop and disable unmanned aircraft only in restricted areas, although members of Congress are considering legislation that could extend that authority to state and local law enforcement. If that fails, the Trump administration is considering a backup plan through the Justice Department that could authorize local police to shoot down drones.
“Everyone from the governors in these different cities to the various police commissioners and the chief security officer of the stadium say this is something they need to protect.” [World Cup] sites,” Andrew Giuliani, director of the White House FIFA World Cup 2026 Task Force, told Politico.
The task force — which coordinates with Homeland Security, the Justice Department and the National Security Council — was formed by Trump’s June executive order in an effort to enhance enforcement of existing laws to stop “two types of individuals: bad-doers and idiots,” Counterterrorism Director Sebastian Gorka said at the time.
Independent FIFA has been requested to comment.
State officials and Democratic and Republican members of Congress have been pushing the administration for months 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, saying “We are hosting some very large events in this country that will challenge our ability to secure such large events at one time.”
At the moment the World Cup is the priority – FIFA will host more than 100 matches in Canada, Mexico and the United States next year – but anti-drone funding is expected to protect broader events as well as infrastructure and industrial and defense sites.
“With large-scale public events like the Olympics and the World Cup, it has never been more timely to take action on airspace security,” Michael Kratsios, head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, told reporters in June.
In a letter to the White House in July, New York Governor Kathy Hochul told Trump that the federal government is “unprepared and poorly positioned” to respond to drone threats, pointing to the bizarre appearance of unmanned aircraft on the East Coast last year as well as continued threats of drone strikes in Europe by Russia’s military.
A September letter from 30 Democratic and Republican governors called on congressional leadership to “take strong legislative action to address these vulnerabilities and enhance protections.”
“While the use of drones has proven valuable to governments for many important purposes, including public safety and law enforcement, disaster recovery, and environmental monitoring, these systems are also increasingly being used for things like spying, stalking, and other types of attacks,” they wrote.
The use of commercial and domestic drones during Russia’s war in Ukraine is “a stark reminder of their lethal potential,” the governors said.