An FBI alert over an Iranian drone “surprise attack” on the West Coast has led to a war of words between the White House and ABC News.
“Outlets like ABC have been playing fast and loose despite many Americans relying on them for solid, factual reporting during this conflict,” said Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly today in a blistering social media post. While never saying “fake news,” Kelly’s remarks follow that of her boss Karoline Leavitt ripping the Disney-owned division for allegedly “providing false information” Wednesday that could “intentionally alarm the American people.”
Noting an expanded version of the FBI report termed the threat info as “unverified,” the White House Press Secretary concluded her own X posting: “TO BE CLEAR: No such threat from Iran to our homeland exists, and it never did.”
On Wednesday, ABC News reported on late February intel from the Bureau that went out to cop shops and other law enforcement in California warning of a possible threat from drones launched off boats in the Pacific.. “We have no additional information on the timing, method, target, or perpetrators of this alleged attack,” the alert said of the aerial device threat.
This post and story should be immediately retracted by ABC News for providing false information to intentionally alarm the American people.
They wrote this based on one email that was sent to local law enforcement in California about a single, unverified tip. The email even… https://t.co/jKey9ahsNk
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) March 12, 2026
From Governor Gavin Newsom, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and the LAPD and more, the reaction in the Oscars-hosting City of Angels was to specify that “at this time, there are no known or specific threats to Los Angeles,” as the police said. Still, with the large Iranian population in L.A. (almost all of whom are critics of the leadership of the Islamic Republic) and the elevated security level due to U.S. and Israeli now two-weeks-long strikes on Iran, tensions are admittedly high, as many sources told Deadline yesterday.
Even with no casualties besides the gunman himself, the heavily covered and likely terror incident at a synagogue in Michigan today certainly raised anxieties even more.
Deadline reached out to the Trump administration today to see if they had more to say on the Iranian drone alert. The White House referred us to Leavitt’s posting. We also reached out to ABC News for their response to the White House’s response to their March 11 report. The division had no comment.
However, ABC News did late last night update their story online and on-air to add the more recently available details from the FBI.
“Editor’s note: The FBI has posted a fuller version of its alert to California authorities, which includes that the information was unverified,” declared an online article on the drone threat alert. “The latest version of this story has been updated with the full statement.”
The full statement, coming after officials on a variety of local, state and federal levels tossing cold water on the threat, essentially added the word “unverified.”
The alert now says: “We recently acquired unverified information that as of early February 2026, Iran allegedly aspired to conduct a surprise attack using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) from an unidentified vessel off the coast of the United States homeland, specifically against unspecified targets in California, in the event the U.S. conducted strikes against Iran. We have no additional information on the timing, method, target, or perpetrators of this alleged attack.”
In a press scrum on March 11, President Trump had a comment himself on the FBI alert sent to Golden State law enforcement two weeks ago: “It’s being investigated. But you have a lot of things happening, and all we can do is take them as they come, and the war itself is being prosecuted as well as anybody has ever seen.”
Organizers of Sunday’s 98th Academy Awards tell Deadline that drone threat or not they have had a high level of security in place for the Oscars for years. “There is a lot in place and a lot you’ll never see,” a source connected to the Hollywood and Highland-held ceremony said Wednesday of the LAPD, FBI and multi-agency security arrangements and multi-street perimeter around the Conan O’Brien-hosted event.
The 2026 Oscars are on Sunday, March 15 at 7 p.m. ET/ 4 p.m. PT, airing live on ABC and streaming live on Hulu.
Ted Johnson contributed to this report
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