December 23, 2025. That’s the day DJI will be automatically banned from the United States — unless Trump intervenes.
You’ll still be able to fly your existing DJI drones and film with existing Osmo cameras. But DJI would be barred from importing any new products into the US, and the FCC could retroactively ban imports. Old DJI products too, after a waiting period. Well, not just drones – anything with a wireless radio.
Why the ban? Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle claim to be concerned that the Chinese company is spying on us, although the US government has never publicly provided evidence of this. Some worry that China could force the company to hand over drone data. (DJI has denied sharing any data with China, claiming it stores all such data in the US and announcing it will delete all US flight logs in September 2024.)
Some also suggest that there would be no need to force DJI because DJI is allegedly “owned by the Chinese Communist Party”, although in September 2025 a US judge decided that there was not enough evidence to support this.
Either way, lawmakers and Trump would clearly prefer American drones to “dominate” the skies rather than Chinese drones, and it is true that DJI’s drones dominate today. No other company has been able to produce high-quality, low-cost drones in similar quantities, to the extent that some Republican lawmakers eventually began pushing against the ban just weeks before the December 2025 deadline.
He argues that DJI drones are important to farmers, energy companies, and rescue workers because no viable alternatives exist. Most of DJI’s older competitors like Skydio have pivoted toward enterprise and military — the new Insta360/AntiGravity A1 is an unusual exception.
Even without the ban, DJI was already on track. US Customs has been blocking many of its drone imports for over a year, claiming that DJI was using forced labor to produce its drones. (DJI denies this.) Amid import investigations, increased tariffs, and the broader political situation, most of its products disappeared from store shelves; It didn’t even bother to launch its flagship Mavic 4 Pro, Mini 5 Pro and Neo 2 in the US.
Instead, it appears that DJI is trying to ship its products to the US under other brand names, like Xtra for cameras, or Skyrover for consumer drones, though the FCC will likely be able to crack down on those as well.
At this point, a ban seems inevitable. To avoid this, “an appropriate national security agency” would need to audit DJI and determine that it poses no threat, but DJI says no agency has done this just weeks before the deadline.
But never say never. Do you remember the TikTok ban? Despite being signed into law, Trump vetoed it, and those lawmakers have no idea what might happen next. Trump has recently enjoyed jabbing tech companies including Intel, Nvidia and Apple in exchange for political and financial victories, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see him make a deal with DJI as well.
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