Qualla: 2023 Lafayette Square U-Haul crash

2023 Lafayette Square U-Haul crash: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

He had arrived in Washington with a one-way ticket. Sai Varshith Kandula, 19 years old, had flown that afternoon from St. Louis to Dulles International Airport, taken a taxi to Herndon, Virginia, and rented a 26-foot U-Haul truck. At 9:35 p.m. on May 22, 2023, he drove the truck north up 16th Street, through Black Lives Matter Plaza, and rammed it into the steel bollards that block traffic from reaching Lafayette Square. The truck recoiled. He backed it up and rammed the barriers again. Then he climbed out, opened the back of the truck, and unfurled a red flag with a black Nazi swastika at its center. When Secret Service agents tackled him to the ground, he told them his goal was to get to the White House, seize power, and be put in charge of the nation. He was a year out of high school.

2023 Lafayette Square U-Haul crash: The Hardened Perimeter

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Lafayette Square sits seven acres north of the White House across Pennsylvania Avenue. Since 1995, when the Oklahoma City bombing led the Treasury Department to close Pennsylvania Avenue to vehicle traffic in front of the residence, the square has been ringed by retractable steel...

2023 Lafayette Square U-Haul crash: Hitler and a Hand Truck

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The bomb robot opened the cargo bay of the U-Haul a few hours later. Inside was a single hand truck. No explosives. No additional weapons. The threat had been the vehicle itself. Sai Varshith Kandula had been born in 2003 or 2004 in Chanda Nagar, in the Telangana state of souther...

2023 Lafayette Square U-Haul crash: Conspiracies and Charges

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The attack drew immediate political reaction, much of it surreal. Donald Trump Jr. suggested on Twitter within hours that the attack might be a false flag operation, and after Kandula's name became public, added that if the threat of white supremacy was so real, why did they have...

2023 Lafayette Square U-Haul crash: A Plea and Eight Years

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On May 13, 2024, Kandula pleaded guilty to a single felony charge of depredation of government property, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years. The plea agreement reduced the rest of the charges to a single count and recommended an eight-year sentence. His defense attorney...