The FBI announced on Tuesday that in the days leading up to Donald Trump's birthday, celebrated in style on Sunday with a mixed martial arts gala in the White House gardens, with 4,000 spectators on-site and tens of thousands more in the vicinity, it thwarted an attempted attack, a plan to use explosive drones and snipers against the country's top authorities, with the aim of causing a massacre and "triggering" a revolution. So far, there have been five arrests and dozens of potential suspects identified, although some have fled.
"On June 10, the FBI and our law enforcement partners became aware of a potential threat against the UFC America 250 event involving individuals outside the National Capital Region. Thanks to the quick action of the agents and the Department of Justice in a multi-state operation, multiple individuals are now in custody, and the alleged attack plans were thwarted. Although the outcome represented the best of investigative work, it was also nothing out of the ordinary for this law enforcement team, designed to detect, respond, and bring to justice those who threaten the lives of American citizens," said the agency's director, Kash Patel, in a tweet.
When asked on Tuesday if he had been informed about the alleged attack, President Donald Trump responded that he was not aware of what had happened. "The attack I witnessed was that of the fighters," Trump told reporters from France, where he is attending the G7 summit.
Access to the White House on Sunday was very restricted, and local police, Maryland police, and the National Guard were deployed in the vicinity. Entry was only allowed with tightly controlled passes. However, the event's 'fan zone' was adjacent, in the Ellipse, next to the White House. The giant screens were just over 100 meters from where the octagon was set up for the fights throughout the night and into the early hours of Sunday.
According to various sources speaking to major U.S. media outlets, there are currently five individuals in custody and 23 others have been identified as potential accomplices or instigators. One of them, 19-year-old Tycen Proper, was arrested on Monday in Ohio and faces four charges, including attempted murder of a federal agent and conspiracy to commit a crime against the United States, as stated in various court documents.
According to these documents, Proper admitted to planning, along with other accomplices, an attack during the fight. They communicated through a TikTok group called "Vanguard of the Old," whose members claimed to "want to protect the United States" and believed the country was "heading in the wrong direction." Communications among group members continued through the encrypted messaging app Signal, where, according to the FBI, they planned the attack on the UFC fight.
The plan was to create some confusion with a protest or a demonstration near the event. In fact, that Sunday saw various peaceful protests against President Trump, accusing him of wanting to be an absolute monarch. According to CBS, in the affidavit, Proper detailed that the plan was for all conspirators from different parts of the country to meet in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and travel to Washington on Sunday.
While the demonstration was taking place in the north area of the White House (the party was in the south), the group "would fly small drones loaded with unspecified explosive devices that would detonate over the north side of the UFC stadium," as stated in the document. When the drones exploded in the neighboring buildings, forcing an evacuation, the group planned to compel the UFC event attendees and "high-value targets" to flee to specific points, where the rest of the group would be waiting, armed, to shoot, hoping to "trigger" a revolution in the United States.
The Secret Service's deputy director, Matthew Quinn, stated that there were still some suspects at large, emphasizing that his team had actively participated in the investigation but had chosen not to disclose details until now for security reasons. "Don't choke on your own smoke," Quinn said, citing a phrase he claimed to have learned early in his career. "Anyone who believes that this case was handled in isolation is naive. I assure you that the Secret Service led the investigation from the beginning. I assure you it continues. To maintain the integrity of the investigation and the security plan, we decided not to leak the information," which has been interpreted as a veiled criticism of Patel, the FBI director, a highly controversial figure in the past year with an unprecedented desire for the limelight.