Former President Donald Trump has denied a published report, which cited only unidentified sources at the Pentagon, that Chinese spy balloons had "transited" over American airspace at least three times during the Trump presidency.
"The Chinese Balloon situation is a disgrace, just like the Afghanistan horror show, and everything else surrounding the grossly incompetent Biden Administration," Trump wrote on his Truth Social app Sunday.
Trump continued: "They are only good at cheating in elections, and disinformation — and now they are putting out that a Balloon was put up by China during the Trump Administration, in order to take the 'heat' off the slow moving Biden fools.
"China had too much respect for 'TRUMP' for this to have happened, and it NEVER did. JUST FAKE DISINFORMATION!" added Trump.
The former commander in chief may have been referencing a report from The Associated Press that originally claimed two Chinese balloon incidents occurred during Trump's time in the White House.
Later on, however, that same story was changed to "three" instances involving Chinese balloons reaching American airspace — without an edit-correction notice from the AP.
As evidence, Amber Athey, the Washington editor for The American Spectator, noted how AP changed its story in virtual real time, without explaining the rationale.
On Saturday, the U.S. military shot down the suspected spy balloon over the Atlantic Ocean. It traversed over Alaska, western Canada, and a swath of continental states before getting shot down near the Carolina coast.
The Chinese balloon also flew over a number of U.S. military sites, which rankled many Americans who had been calling for the object to be grounded immediately.
As Newsmax chronicled Saturday, China maintains the balloon flyover was an accident and has since floated possible repercussions against the U.S. government.
China said it has now reserved the right to "take further actions" and criticized the U.S. for "an obvious overreaction and a serious violation of international practice."
In a Sunday statement, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs office said, "China will resolutely uphold the relevant company's legitimate rights and interests, and at the same time reserving the right to take further actions in response."