Authorities say they disrupted planned drone, gun attack on White House
UFC cage-fighting show
[June 17, 2026]
By ERIC TUCKER
WASHINGTON (AP) — Law enforcement officials disrupted a planned attack
targeting President Donald Trump's UFC cage-fighting show at the White
House this past weekend, according to court papers unsealed Tuesday that
say plotters who harbored fringe conspiracy theories spoke of flying
explosives-laden drones and shooting panicked crowd members as they
fled.
Investigators recovered high-powered firearms from several of the
suspects and reviewed encrypted text messages between roughly 20
participants who shared detailed maps and aerial photographs of the area
and discussed the need for a “safe house” and escape routes after the
intended attack, the documents show.
But it's unclear from the court records how close the would-be attackers
could have come to being able to carry out the plan had it not been
thwarted.
Several suspects or co-conspirators who were questioned by the
authorities said they did not intend themselves to carry out violence
but planned to instead observe others. One said he would have traveled
to the UFC event as a protester but had to return home after his vehicle
malfunctioned. And though the participants spoke of using drones rigged
with explosives, charging documents suggest they were still looking to
acquire such equipment when the plot was interrupted.
“It didn't even get close to the point of execution,” Vice President JD
Vance said Tuesday evening on Fox News Channel, describing the planning
as “not that advanced.”
“They weren’t in town. They had not really done that much planning,” he
said.
United by conspiracy theories and anger over the country's direction
Law enforcement officials learned about the possible threat on June 10,
four days before the mixed martial arts extravaganza on the White
House’s South Lawn, “and thanks to the rapid action of the FBI, our
partners, and the Department of Justice in a multi-state operation,
multiple individuals are now in custody and allegedly planned attacks
were stopped cold,” Director Kash Patel said in a post on X on Tuesday.
Five people from states including Ohio, Missouri, Nebraska and
California were arrested on federal charges, the Justice Department
said.
Asked about the arrests Tuesday, Vance said there was “more violent
rhetoric coming from the left than the right these days.” But the
charging documents paint a more muddled view of their views, depicting
them as espousing a tangled web of anti-government sentiment,
antisemitic grievances, fury over the Trump administration's handling of
the Jeffrey Epstein files and conspiracy theories about a powerful elite
that sacrifices and consumes children.
Both Trump and Vance said they had not been briefed in advance of the
plot. A top Secret Service official suggested Tuesday the investigation
was continuing and an announcement might have been premature.
“Anyone that believes that case was worked in a bubble is naive,” Deputy
Secret Service Director Matthew Quinn told reporters at an unrelated
news conference. “I'll tell you the Secret Service led that
investigation from the beginning. I'll tell you that it's ongoing. In
order to maintain the integrity of the investigation and the security
plan, we chose not to leak it.”
Communications took place on TikTok and Signal
Among those arrested was Tycen Proper, a 19-year-old Ohio man whose
mother contacted law enforcement last week with concerns about his
firearms purchases and online communications, according to an FBI
affidavit filed in the case.
Proper told officials he participated in the planning of an attack,
according to the affidavit, which says some members of the group began
communicating with each other last March through a TikTok group called
“Vanguard of the Old.”
“The members of the group stated that they wanted to protect the United
States, which they believed was headed in the wrong direction,” the
affidavit says. “Members of the group believed that the United States
needed to be torn down so that it could be rebuilt. Some expressed a
desire that people who were involved with Jeffrey Epstein should not
govern the country.”
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President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump, UFC President and
CEO Dana White and other guests pose inside the octagon after UFC
Freedom 250 on the South Lawn of the White House, Monday, June 15,
2026, in Washington. (Evan Vucci/Pool Photo via AP)
Trump, who celebrated his 80th birthday at the UFC event on Sunday,
was friends with Epstein many years ago but has said he ended their
relationship before the disgraced financier’s crimes became known.
Epstein killed himself in a New York jail cell in 2019 as he awaited
trial on sex trafficking charges.
A lawyer for Proper, who is charged with firearms offenses and
crimes including attempted murder of an officer or employee of the
United States, did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
The logistics were discussed via Signal, an app that uses end-to-end
encryption for its messaging and calling services, through a primary
chat of “approximately 19 individuals" and smaller side chats,
authorities said. Messages obtained from Proper's phone show he
identified by name several Republican lawmakers he said should be
targeted because they apparently received donations from causes
supportive of Israel, the affidavit said.
Proper told law enforcement officials that he had been planning to
drive with weapons and body armor to a meet-up spot in
Fredericksburg, Virginia, court papers say. He said though he did
not intend to shoot people at the White House, others in the group
did, the affidavit said.
The plan called for the use of drones that would be detonated over
the north side of the White House, prompting an evacuation into the
line of fire of waiting snipers in an attack Proper said was
designed to “jumpstart” a revolution, authorities said.
Investigators who examined Proper's phone and TikTok account
identified additional suspects.
Michael Alan Thomas, 32, of Pinon Hills, California, told officials
he viewed himself as “the planner and advisor for the group, and
while he was not willing to take action himself, wanted to guide and
instruct others on how to carry out attacks" designed to overthrow
the government, an FBI agent said in an affidavit.
The agent said Thomas believed the U.S. government was “run by an
elite group of individuals who sacrifice and consume infants who
also were deeply involved" with Epstein and are now protected by
Trump.
Another suspect, Bryan Omar Roa, also of California, told the FBI he
had planned to attend the event as a “protester” but he had to
return home because his car was broken, an agent said.
It was not immediately clear who their lawyers were.
Two other suspects were identified as Daniel K. Eskridge, 32, of
Kidder, Missouri, who officials say said in a group chat that a
target of the attack should be “big and someone a majority of the
country knows,” and Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez, an Omaha, Nebraska,
man who the FBI said posted detailed plans with the co-conspirators.
A lawyer for Alvarez declined to comment and a lawyer for Eskridge
did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
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Associated Press writers Darlene Superville in Évian-les-Bains,
France, and Michael Kunzelman in Washington contributed to this
report.
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