‘Incompetence’: Trump admin fries its own $17 million drone with laser, Dems slam poorly trained operators

Hey, it turns out the Trump administration can hit the mark sometimes! Yesterday their brave soldiers over in the Department of Defense spotted a suspicious object hovering over the US border to the southeast of El Paso.

They leapt into action, manning their laser cannons for a bit of the old *pew pew pew*. All too soon, the target was obliterated, hopefully followed by a smug laser gun operator quipping, “I used to bullseye womp rats in my T-16 back home!”

Then the wreckage was inspected. Uh, oops. As it turned out, the Department of Defense had been targeting a very expensive Customs and Border Protection drone that was patrolling the border, and had just fried some very expensive equipment. But how much could one drone really cost anyway?

BREAKING: The U.S. military accidentally shot down a CBP drone on the Texas–Mexico border using a high-energy laser, prompting the FAA to bar flights near Fort Hancock, Texas. pic.twitter.com/PCJeQKdax0

— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) February 27, 2026

Oh, $17 million? Oh well, that’s just the cost of building a single new elementary school. No biggie!

Are these the people we really want to hand laser guns to?

The Pentagon, the CBP, and the FAA have released a somewhat bashful statement explaining what happened:

“This reported engagement occurred when the Department of War employed counter-unmanned aircraft system authorities to mitigate a seemingly threatening unmanned aerial system operating within military airspace.”

Uh-huh. Congressional Democrats, including ranking members of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, are furious at this costly incompetence, criticizing the poorly trained morons the DoD is putting in positions of power. They said:

“Our heads are exploding over the news that DoD reportedly shot down a Customs and Border Protection drone using a high risk counter-unmanned aircraft system. We said MONTHS ago that the White House’s decision to sidestep a bipartisan, tri-committee bill to appropriately train C-UAS operators and address the lack of coordination between the Pentagon, DHS and the FAA was a short-sighted idea. Now, we’re seeing the result of its incompetence.”

Incompetence is the appropriate word, but frankly, this is just what we’ve come to expect from the knuckle-dragging idiots hired by Trump and given access to high-powered weaponry. Perhaps we should be thankful they just shot down their own unmanned drone and didn’t panic at the sight of an airliner coming in at an unusual angle and blow hundreds of air passengers out of the sky…