Trump is using Gaza-tested drones to spy on US citizens protesting over Israel

The Trump regime is using AI drones, or more precisely UAVs (uncrewed aerial vehicles), which the Israeli military has ‘battle-tested’ on Palestinian civilians in Gaza, to spy on American citizens on US soil who take part in protests against the US government’s collaboration in genocide, or any other anti-government demonstrations.

Skydio: from Israel to the US

The AI-controlled ‘quadcopters’, made by US firm Skydio, have been in use by the occupation military, in large numbers, against the people of Gaza since the earliest days of Israel’s genocide. Now they are flying over US cities, spying on protestors and uploading terabytes of images to an ‘evidence database’.

Skydio now has contracts with over eight hundred US security and law enforcement agencies, an increase of almost five hundred just since March 2024, with hundreds launched daily to monitor those targeted by the Trump administration for their activism and resistance. The firm has an Israeli office and extensive links with the genocidal Israeli regime, sending more than a hundred of its drones to the occupation military almost immediately after 7 October 2023, with an unknown additional number since, and is hugely funded by US-Israeli capital.

The firm’s drones were by police and security services to spy on the recent massive ‘No Kings’ protests against  Trump’s moves to become a dictator and, according to the Grayzone, have also been used by Yale University to spy on students participating in anti-genocide protest camps and, to a massive extent of more than 20,000 flights a year, by New York City police. Trump’s fascist ‘ICE’ militia and Border Force are also using Skydio drones to track and pursue targets without human intervention or control.

Battle-tested drones on American soil

Under the Biden administration, FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) rules banned drone use outside the operator’s line of sight and over city streets. Still, a Trump-era waiver removed these restrictions. It triggered a free-for-all that has seen almost every major city buy and deploy the UAVs against its local populace, increasingly as a ‘first response’ rather than sending humans.

The drones use software made by Axon, whose products are extensively used by apartheid Israel against Palestinians, including tasers supplied to Israel’s military and prison guards who inflict horrific torture on Palestinian prisoners every day.

The US deployment of Skydio’s UAVs mirrors the longstanding pattern of Western military and police using equipment sold by arms manufacturers as ‘battle-tested’ in Palestine, including the UK, where the Met Police have ordered armoured cars used by the occupation military during the genocide.

Featured image via the Canary