New Jersey is now subject to nonstop and often sensational civilian reports of swarms of nocturnal drones crossing city skies and violating the airspace of airports and military bases.

Terrified thousands demand to know what these drones are doing and to whom they belong.

In response, the Biden administration had initially kept mum. Then, under mounting public pressure, it assured the public to be calm, given that most of the drones were likely launched by hobbyists and private citizens.

When that narrative failed to convince many, spokespeople pivoted to claims of mass hysteria and mistaken identity.

Amateur sightseers, they inferred, were subject to panic and hallucinations — supposedly wrongly confusing normal civilian and airline planes with drones.

Perhaps. But as the sightings continued, more government narratives followed that the drones were unidentified but still harmless and certainly not foreign-operated.

Still, the mysterious sightings continued. And the public’s initial curiosity soon turned to fear and finally to anger at their government’s silence, subsequent gaslighting, and final mendacity.

In its characteristic stonewalling, the Biden administration has only fueled speculations and occasional conspiracy theories when it could have at least reviewed logical theories and welcomed legitimate questions.

Is a controversial government agency — perhaps the CIA or the EPA — surveilling installations, areas, or people that would either be too embarrassing to be revealed or otherwise might set off panic? And for the public good or consistent with this administration’s weaponization of government?

Or are these drones the work of foreign surveillance in the mode of the 2023 Chinese spy balloon?

A government that long ago lost all its credibility could not reassure the people of the truth even if it wished to.

In late January and early February 2023, a huge Chinese surveillance balloon traversed across the United States. Public outrage grew as the administration changed its excuses by the day.

It variously assured the public that it was a mere weather balloon, that it would be too dangerous to shoot it down, that it did not transmit any of its photographic capability to China, or that its trajectory did not cross key military installations.

All those excuses were either half-lies or untrue.

So, the American public understandably no longer believes much of anything the waning Biden administration says — not after its other chronic lies about denying the role of the Wuhan lab in the COVID-19 pandemic, only “moderate” inflation, and assurances that Hunter Biden would never be pardoned by his father.

Anytime there is a scandal or embarrassment on team Biden’s watch, the administration wheels out megaphones that ignore inquiries, gaslights critics by claiming they are hallucinatory, defames them as conspiratorial, or simply flat-out lies and stonewalls.

No one yet knows what, if anything, these drones are, what they are doing in our skies — and much less whether they pose any threat at all.