The FBI just stopped what could have been one of the deadliest attacks on American soil in years.
Five suspects are now in custody, and the target was the White House itself.
And JD Vance went on Fox & Friends with a warning about left-wing political rhetoric that Democrats are not going to want to hear.
What the FBI Uncovered
Officials say the alleged plan involved using explosive-laden drones to strike buildings near the event, trigger a mass evacuation, and funnel crowds toward a pre-staged sniper team. A second phase allegedly called for storming the White House gate.
Tycen Proper, 19, of Danville, Ohio, told federal investigators he intended to “jump-start” a revolution in the U.S. with an attack that would begin with drone bombings over the north side of the arena. Co-conspirators, the charging documents allege, planned to take up sniper positions overlooking southern evacuation routes and shoot “high value targets” including U.S. politicians the group identified as supporting Israeli interests.
Five people have been charged for their alleged roles in the scheme: Tycen Proper of Ohio, Daniel Eskridge of Missouri, Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez of Nebraska, and Bryan Omar Roa and Michael Alan Thomas of California.
Proper’s father told investigators that his son had recently used $3,000 of his graduation money on camping gear, ballistic plates, a new shotgun, “lots” of ammunition, extra magazines, and plate carriers. His mother told the FBI that her son had been communicating with an ultra-religious, anti-government group.
According to chats reviewed by the FBI, Eskridge told members he was preparing his garage to be their “safe house” and was building a “bunker” under the floorboards of his shed.
Another suspect, Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez, is accused of sharing a screenshot that listed potential people for the group to target, including “1,” who the FBI says it believes is “likely identifiable with President Trump”; “2,” who the FBI says it believes is “likely referring to Vice President JD Vance”; “N,” who it believes was “referring to Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu”; and “Musk,” referring to Elon Musk.
A number of elected officials were also named, including Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, and members of West Virginia’s congressional delegation.
According to Fox News, one suspect allegedly told investigators the plotters’ goal was to target “capitalist elites,” “billionaires,” and politicians who received money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC.
Two law enforcement sources told CBS News that officials seized weapons, thousands of rounds of ammunition, and tactical gear from the suspects during the execution of search warrants. Sources said that no drones have actually been recovered, and use of the drones was believed to be in the discussion-and-research phases.
The investigation spanned at least 12 FBI field offices.
Kash Patel and the FBI Moved Fast
The FBI learned about the possible threat on June 10, four days before the mixed martial arts event on the White House’s South Lawn.
“Thanks to the rapid action of this 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,” Patel said on X.
FBI Director Kash Patel thanked the FBI, Secret Service, and Department of Justice for acting quickly to respond and prevent the planned attack. “I want to thank our great agents and partners, this work remains ongoing and we will continue to update the public as permitted,” Patel said.
President Trump was joined by JD Vance and several other Cabinet members, celebrities, and active-duty service members in the 4,300-person crowd to watch the UFC fight card. Another 85,000 fans gathered on the White House Ellipse for a viewing party. The scale of what could have happened is almost too grim to think about.
JD Vance Calls It What It Is
JD Vance was at that event. He sat in that crowd. And he did not mince words when he got on *Fox & Friends* the next morning.
“This is very, very dark stuff,” he said. “This is what happens when people turn the rhetoric up so loud that disagreeing with somebody is a cause for violence.”
Vance described the alleged plan as a “coordinated planned terrorist plot” and cited the Trump administration’s work to investigate funding and coordination networks of radical left-wing groups.
But Vance did not stop there. He put the question directly to the Democrat Party.
“Everybody has a role to cut this stuff out, but I think a lot of my Democratic colleagues in Washington have got to look themselves in the mirror and say, ‘Why is so much of this political violence coming from our side of the spectrum?’ Maybe they can do something different.”
“We’ve got to tell everybody to tone it down, and I hate to say this, but it’s true: You see more political violence and violent rhetoric coming from the Left than the Right these days,” Vance said on Fox & Friends.
Vance called the plot “very, very dark stuff,” and said authorities were looking at the underground networks that would drive such violence. The threat involved the use of explosive-laden drones and snipers and, according to Vance, “some serious coordination.”
This Did Not Come Out of Nowhere
The left-wing media will spend the next week trying to spin this. They will call these suspects fringe loners. They will question the FBI’s characterization. They will do everything in their power to avoid the obvious conclusion sitting right in front of them.
But the facts are what they are. According to court documents, the group Proper joined was focused on some form of accelerationism, an ideology that believes the collapse of society should be expedited in order to form a better world. That is not a random act of rage. That is a political ideology with targets and a plan.
Earlier this year, a man alleged to be armed with guns and knives ran through a security checkpoint at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. The suspect, Cole Tomas Allen, pleaded not guilty to attempting to assassinate the president.
Lawmakers face a spike in threats as well. U.S. Capitol Police said they investigated nearly 15,000 “concerning statements, behaviors, and communications” targeting lawmakers, their families, staff members, or the Capitol last year. The previous year, police investigated more than 9,000 potential threats.
And this is where it gets uncomfortable for the people in Washington who spent the past several years cranking the temperature up as high as it would go. Every Democrat who called Donald Trump a fascist, every media personality who compared his supporters to Nazis, every left-wing activist who spent years telling audiences that the people across the aisle were not just wrong but evil — all of it lands somewhere. Words have weight. Rhetoric has consequences.
The same political figures and news organizations that branded every Trump rally a threat to democracy spent the summer of 2020 watching American cities burn and calling it a “mostly peaceful” protest. Federal courthouses were attacked. A police precinct in Minneapolis was seized and torched. Billions of dollars in damage was done to working Americans and small business owners. The media called it a movement. They called it justice. And they kept the temperature rising.
Now there are five people in custody who allegedly wanted to detonate drones over a crowd that included the President of the United States, the Vice President, and 85,000 American citizens who just wanted to watch a fight.
JD Vance is right to ask the question. The Democrats who helped build this climate owe the country an answer.
Sources: Fox News, Washington Times, CBS News, ESPN, NBC News, Daily Signal, Times of Israel, WJLA