Karoline Leavitt Calls For Retraction Of Misleading News Story

A dramatic clash erupted between the White House and ABC News after a report warning of a potential Iranian drone attack on the U.S. West Coast triggered immediate backlash from the Trump administration.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt demanded that ABC News retract the report entirely, accusing the outlet of spreading misleading information that she said unnecessarily alarmed the public.

The controversy began Wednesday when ABC News posted a breaking update claiming the FBI had warned police departments in California that Iran could retaliate against recent U.S. military actions by launching offensive drones toward the West Coast.

The report quickly spread across social media, raising concerns that Iran could attempt to strike U.S. soil.

But Leavitt fired back Thursday, calling the report flat-out false.

“This post and story should be immediately retracted by ABC News for providing false information to intentionally alarm the American people,” Leavitt wrote in a sharp statement.

According to the White House, the report was based on a single email sent to local law enforcement about a tip that had not been verified. Leavitt argued that ABC failed to include that critical context when presenting the story.

“They wrote this based on one email that was sent to local law enforcement in California about a single, unverified tip,” Leavitt said. “The email even states the tip was based on unverified intelligence. Yet ABC News left out this critical fact in their story! WHY?”

Leavitt made the administration’s position even clearer in a follow-up post.

“To be clear: No such threat from Iran to our homeland exists, and it never did,” she wrote.

Fueling the dispute further, FBI Assistant Director for Public Affairs Ben Williamson shared side-by-side screenshots showing how the alert was reported versus the original document distributed to law enforcement partners.