A report surfaced earlier this week — just days ahead of the 2026 Academy Awards — about a potential drone attack being planned against California by Iran in retaliation for the U.S. strikes. The revelation prompted statewide concern among West Coasters, and several in the entertainment industry commented on the situation, including Jimmy Kimmel.
“The mood around the Oscars is a little bit tense this year,” the comedian said on his late-night show on Wednesday, March 11. “You know, they beefed up security after the FBI warned law enforcement here in California that Iran is aspiring to launch a drone strike on the West Coast, which is where we all are right now. … Isn’t this how Iron Man 3 started? The movie? We can’t handle a drone strike. We barely survived the [2023] writers’ strike here.”
Here is what we know about the FBI alert regarding a potential drone attack.
Is a Drone Attack on California Being Planned?
According to ABC News, the FBI alerted California police departments that Iran was planning a retaliatory attack with drones. However, the attack information was unverified.
“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,” an alert distributed in late February read, per ABC. “We have no additional information on the timing, method, target, or perpetrators of this alleged attack.”
Nevertheless, as Kimmel pointed out, multiple reports of heightened security at the Oscars circulated online.
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
What Did the White House Say About the California Drone Attack Report?
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt slammed ABC’s report in an X.com post, writing that the post should be “immediately retracted … 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,” Leavitt alleged in her statement. “The email even states the tip was based on *unverified* intelligence. Yet ABC News left out this critical fact in their story! WHY?”
Leavitt ended her post by writing, “TO BE CLEAR: No such threat from Iran to our homeland exists, and it never did.”