President Donald Trump spent the last year breaking open a counter-drone system that kept too much authority bottled up in Washington. His June 2025 airspace order pushed federal agencies to build state and local detection capacity and a national training center. In December, he signed the FY2026 defense authorization with the SAFER SKIES Act, giving trained state and local law enforcement new authority to act against drones that pose credible threats.

That was the right political decision. Washington cannot protect every prison, stadium, power plant, and public gathering from a centralized control room.