Law enforcement officials say they disrupted a planned attack targeting the UFC event hosted by US President Donald Trump at the White House this past weekend.
New court documents say the alleged plotters spoke of flying explosives-laden drones into the event and then shooting panicked crowd members as they fled.
US President Donald Trump and UFC CEO Dana White arrive for the UFC event at the White House last weekend. (Picture: Kent Nishimura/AFP via Getty Images)What do the police know?
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.
They also allegedly 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 came to being able to carry out the plan.
Though the alleged participants spoke via text of using drones rigged with explosives, the documents suggest they were still looking to acquire such equipment when the plot was interrupted.
"I do think the political violence and rhetoric in this country is completely out of control."Speaking on @TheFive, VP JD Vance reacted to news that the FBI disrupted an alleged drone and sniper plot targeting the White House UFC Freedom 250 event.Vance said the suspects… pic.twitter.com/P8VaGsl9Tb
— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 16, 2026“It didn’t even get close to the point of execution,” Vice President JD Vance told Fox News on Tuesday, describing the planning as “not that advanced.”
“They weren’t in town. They had not really done that much planning,” he said.
Law enforcement learned about the possible threat on June 10, four days before the UFC extravaganza on the White House’s South Lawn.
“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,” FBI director Kash Patel said in a post on X on Tuesday.
The Justice Department put the number of arrests at five.
More details about planned attacks targeting the White House UFC event which investigators say involves a Central Ohio man.Federal Court complaint:-19 year old Tycen Proper of Knox County was among those arrested. More to come @wlwt pic.twitter.com/Qp2VtwL2Hi
— Karin Johnson WLWT (@karinjohnson) June 16, 2026Who are the suspects?
The documents showed the arrested group as espousing a list of different grievances: anti-government sentiment, antisemitism, fury over the Trump administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files and conspiracy theories about a powerful elite that sacrifices and consumes children.
Among those arrested was Tycen Proper, a 19-year-old whose mother contacted law enforcement last week with concerns about his firearms purchases and online communications, according to an FBI affidavit.
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.”
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.
US President Donald Trump attends the UFC event at the White House last Sunday. (Picture: Alex Brandon/AP)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 he did not intend to shoot people at the White House, but 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, 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 US 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 was identified as Daniel Eskridge, 32, 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.”
With input from AP
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