One the nut-jobs charged with plotting an attack of the White House for the Freedom 250 UFC event posted scores of anti-Trump, white supremacist and antisemitic videos on TikTok — as the federal government says the plotters used TikTok to help organize.
Bryan Omar Roa, 24, filled his TikTok with reposts from likeminded accounts that called for violent revolution in America and destruction of the government — many of which included an undercurrent of white supremacy and conspiracy theories.
“The people calling you an extremist are eating babies,” one post read, with the text laid over the helmet of a Crusader knight and a double-headed eagle — two images often co-opted by white supremacists and neo-Nazis.
Another video Roa reposted showed a Trump “Make America Great Again” flag being pitched into a fire alongside the German song “Erika” — one of the Nazis’ preferred marching songs during World War Two.
“When you finally understand what’s going on,” the video read. “The left calls you maga, the right calls you liberal but really your just an American who sees it how it is.”
Other videos bashed Trump, including one with a clip of the president saying “I didn’t guarantee no war” when pressed during an interview about the war in Iran — before a series of clips from his campaign trails showed him promising not to drag the US into any wars while he was in office.
“Someone needs to remind Trump the internet is forever…” the video was captioned.
Roa was one of four people charged with plotting an attack on the White House lawn event Sunday, which intended to used explosive drones and sniper fire to unleash a massacre — and spark “revolution” in America.
But the plot was foiled days earlier on June 10, after the mother of a 19-year-old alleged conspirator — Tycen Proper, of central Ohio — reported his suspicious behavior, and the FBI was able to infiltrate online chats where the group allegedly planned the attack, court documents from federal prosecutors showed.
At least 19 people from four states — California, Ohio, Missouri and Nebraska — are suspected of being involved. It remains unclear how realistically operational the plans were, but several of the suspects were found with body armor and arsenals of guns and ammunition.
And it was social media activity similar to Roa’s which appeared to draw the alleged conspirators together, with court documents showing TikTok was largely used to recruit likeminded radicals.
“Members of this group were primarily recruited through TikTok,” a criminal complaint from the US Central District of California read. “Once an individual had proven himself to an established member of the group on TikTok, they were then transitioned to a vetted (and more secure) Signal chat.”
Roa and his alleged conspirators appeared to align with the “accelerationist” ideology, a white-supremacy-adjacent movement dedicated to overthrowing the mainstream American establishment.
Trump wasn’t the only target of Roa’s social media ire — Israel was repeatedly described as being an “evil” puppet master controlling America through money in a classical antisemitic trope, data centers were accused of being built to establish an AI surveillance state, while politicians were described as “actors”
“They’ve brough us nothing but chaos, enslavement, taking your money, sending your child to go fight for something we don’t even know,” one reposted video said. “I think their time is up. And I think everyone around the world feels it.”
Roa denied participating in the plot to blow up the White House UFC event, with court documents showing he allegedly told investigators he merely intended to attend a protest during the event.
But he was filmed shooting guns on his Instagram account, and allegedly told investigators that a “hypothetical” drone attack on an event instead of indiscriminate shooting would be a good way to “enact political change,” according to court documents.
Roa was arrested along with Michael Alan Thomas, Proper, 31-year-old Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez, and 32-year-old Daniel K. Eskridge. They face charges from conspiracy to commit murder, to attempted murder of an officer or employee of the United States and weapons charges.