Four days before President Donald Trump celebrated his 80th birthday watching cage fights on the White House lawn, police in Knox County, Ohio received a call from a worried mother.

Her son, Tycen Proper, 19, had been buying guns and talking to people online about 'recons' and 'hit and run missions,' she said.

When officers went to the family home north of Columbus the teenager's parents told them he was planning to leave that weekend to meet up with his online contacts. The family had seen maps of Washington exchanged by text, and on Discord.

They said their son had spent $3,000 of his graduation money on body armor and guns including an AR-style rifle, a bullpup rifle painted with the American flag and 'lots' of ammunition including extra magazines.

Those he was associating with included people who said they were ex-military and Christian.

'They expressed ultra-religious and anti-government sentiments, specifically citing grievances about government corruption, the handling of the Epstein files, data centers taking up all the water in communities, and other government actions,' an FBI affidavit said.

Officers found a journal in his room in which Proper wrote that the government sought to 'control people and to sacrifice children and others to a demonic figure.'

The journal also had a list of 46 names, which included celebrities and politicians, and there were also boxes of spent ammunition.

The find in Danbury, Ohio sparked the start of a rapid nationwide investigation which would uncover an elaborate alleged plot to attack the White House with explosive drones, and to murder fleeing VIPs.

According to the FBI, the planning came together on TikTok and Signal, and details had been laid out to have concealed snipers lying in wait as the crowd fled the first wave of drones.

A plan had also been hatched for the perpetrators to flee along the Potomac River to a safe house.

FBI agents, in sworn affidavits, said the plot was prompted by a variety of motives including a hatred of 'corrupt' government, conspiracy theories about the Epstein files, and even anger about data centers eating up energy resources.

After tracing alleged co-conspirators through Proper's phone, five people were arrested from states including Ohio, Missouri and California , and up to around 20 were believed to have been involved.

The alleged plot involved staging a demonstration on the north side of the White House. The group would then fly small drones, laden with explosives, detonating them over the north side of the UFC arena known as the Claw, according to an FBI affidavit.

That would force the crowd and 'HVTs' (high value targets) to evacuate to the south, where the snipers would be waiting.

HVTs included both wealthy people and politicians and the attack was 'designed to "jumpstart" a revolution in the United States,' an FBI affidavit said. 

The FBI also found chats in the encrypted messaging app SimpleX.

On May 13, 2026, Proper wrote: "I got a possible target Marsha Blackburn is senator for Tennessee. She's taken money from the pro Israel lobby and supports them.'

There were also images of four more politicians and the comment: 'These are people we’re going to focus on.'

The four images were taken from the website of AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.)

According to the FBI, they were Senator Jim Justice, Senator Shelley Moore Capito, Congresswoman Carol MilIer, and Congresswoman Riley Moore.

Proper explained to FBI agents how, to become part of the plot, an individual had to join a TikTok group. Then once vetted, they would be accepted into a tighter. more secure Signal group.

One chat had 19 members and there were also smaller ones of less than six based on 'the locations which the co-conspirators would occupy and shoot from during the attack,' according to an FBI affidavit.

One Signal group was called 'Hunters' and there was also a chatroom called 'Vanguard of the Old Republic.'

After their messaging links to Proper were discovered, Bryan Omar Roa and Michael Alan Thomas were arrested in California.

Thomas had written in a Signal group that everyone should 'consider yourselves an enemy of the state.'

He also wrote: 'So, to be precise, you’re imagining executions right?'

The chats also revealed that there were to be 'tiers' of operators with 'Tier 1' being those who 'put themselves in harms way' and 'break the law,' while others would be in supporting roles.

Thomas wrote: '$1300 gets us the drones and the charges. Yes we should all pitch in and we need it asap.'

Family members of Roa told the FBI that he had said one day he would be gone, and 'something big' would happen in Washington.

In a group chat titled 'Ops Stage One' another user called Fulcrum6 said that 'once each team is mission ready the green light will be given and the drone rigged with explosives will fly (and) they will initiate the attack.'

He added: 'Rooftop snipers will initiate their part of the plan eliminating HVTs (high value targets.)'

Fulcrum has since been identified by the FBI and arrested Missouri.

According to an FBI affidavit, Thomas told agents in an interview that the aim of the attack was to create enough chaos to bring about the overthrow of the government.

It said: 'Thomas indicated that he believes that the US government is run by an elite group of individuals who sacrifice and consume infants, who also were deeply involved with Jeffrey Epstein, and are now protected by President Donald Trump.'

Those motivations have drawn parallels with other attacks inspired by the so-called 'accelerationist' ideology.

Accelerationism is a term used by some on the far-right to mean speeding up the collapse of current society.

It has been linked to various attacks, including the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand in which 51 people were killed.

The white supremacist gunman, Brenton Tarrant, included a chapter called 'Destabilisation and Accelerationism: Tactics for Victory' in his manifesto.

However, wxperts disagree about what 'accelerationism' actually is.

According to Kyle Shideler, director and senior analyst for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism at the Center for Security Policy, it is 'not an ideology.'

'It’s a strategy, which can be equally utilized by actors of any ideological bent, and indeed is common to many very different ideologies.'