White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt thanked ABC News Friday for correcting its “misleading” report about Iran targeting California with drone attacks.
“Thank you to ABC News for issuing a correction to this story,” Leavitt said in an early morning X post.
“The problem? Their original, misleading story received 10 million views and panicked people across the country,” Leavitt added. “The correction only has 100,000 views. Fake News is real and it is dangerous.”
She concluded her remarks on the matter by saying President Donald Trump’s administration is “working 24/7” to stay on top of intelligence regarding the Iran war “to keep up with it all and fight back.”
Leavitt previously demanded ABC News’ post be taken down entirely.
Her post was in response to ABC News’ report that the FBI warned California police about Iran retaliating against the U.S. by targeting the West Coast with drone attacks.
ABC News returned with an update about an hour after its initial X post, noting that it published a fuller version of the FBI alert to California authorities, which includes that the details about the attacks were “unverified.”
Here’s the full statement of the FBI’s alert, per ABC News: “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.”
Trump told reporters Wednesday that he plans on looking into the notification.
“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,” he said.
