What do drones, routers, and Roombas have in common? The US government wants to keep Chinese ones from entering the country. They’re the first consumer gadgets that are facing de facto import bans because of the US government’s xenophobic stance — and they might not be the last.
Originally, the US government was just worried about US networks. It’s been distrustful of Chinese telecom equipment providers Huawei and ZTE for well over a decade, eventually requiring telecom providers to “rip and replace” their gear. (Many telecoms have still failed to do so.) It established an “Entity List” for companies whose gear should be banned from import, marketing, and sale.
But under the second Trump administration, that list has been weaponized against entire home consumer gadget categories too — starting in December 2025 when Trump and Brendan Carr’s FCC banned all future foreign drones unless their companies obtained a waiver.
Next was a ban on all future foreign routers, all future foreign robots and power inverters, and within the robot ban, all future foreign robovacs. In each case, the government claims it’s because those gadgets fundamentally pose an unacceptable threat to US national security. But in each case, the US has provided zero public evidence of a threat, has done nothing about existing drones and routers and robots that might pose such a threat, and hasn’t given us any reason to trust that its waivers have anything to do with security.
Besides, there are rarely any US companies to fill the gaps left by foreign ones. Consumer gadgets are largely made overseas, including practically all routers and practically all drones — just like how your Apple, Dell, and HP laptops are not made in the US.
In this StoryStream, we’re following the latest on the foreign gadget bans.