US media has reported that the FBI warned California about possible drone attacks launched by Iran towards the West Coast.
The alert, reported by ABC News, said Iran was looking to conduct a “surprise attack” using drones launched from a boat off the coast of California.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt disputed ABC's report, saying it was based on a single, unverified tip. “No such threat from Iran to our homeland exists, and it never did,” she said on X on Thursday.
Late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel joked that a strike on Hollywood would be ideal for Donald Trump, and warned the people of Iran that the US President may bomb the traditionally liberal area of southern California himself and blame it on Tehran.
Mr Trump, meanwhile, said this week that he has been briefed on Iranian “sleeper cells” currently in the US.
The claims have generated online suspicion, with some users speculating the US may attempt to engage in a false flag operation, as outlined by Kimmel: carrying out a strike on the homeland and blaming an adversary with the aim of consolidating power or taking away rights.
“Desperate to manufacture outrage, brainwash the sheep, and drag American boots back into the sand,” one user whose bio describes them as a conspiracy theorist wrote on X.
Another user said: “There’s no reason for Iran to want to pick California out of the blue and we know how Trump feels about [Democratic Governor Gavin] Newsom.”
Mr Newsom is a potential 2028 Democratic candidate for president and has frequently criticised Mr Trump on social media.
Some conservative commentators who have become critical of the Trump administration over the war with Iran have pointed to low levels of support for it – only one in four Americans back the strikes, according to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll – and suggested that only something like a large-scale terrorist attack would succeed in bringing people on side.
