A 23-year-old man allegedly tried to detonate what he thought was a massive bomb outside an Oklahoma City bank out of admiration for domestic terrorist Timothy McVeigh, according to a report.

Jerry Drake Varnell was arrested after a Friday night attempt to blow up a fake 1,000-pound bomb inside a cargo van, the Washington Post reported, citing a criminal complaint filed in federal court.

According to a months-long probe by the FBI, Varnell made repeated statements about his hatred of the federal government, the paper reported.

In one instance, he said he believed in the “Three Percenter” ideology, which pledges resistance against the US government on the belief it has infringed on the Constitution, according to court papers.

Believers in the ideology incorrectly believe that only 3 percent of the colonial population took part in the American Revolution, and they see themselves as their heirs.

Varnell expressed his goal of blowing up buildings, but in a way that would minimize deaths or casualties, possibly by setting off the bomb at night when offices would be mostly empty, according to the feds.

He tried to detonate the fake device at 6:30 p.m. Friday and was arrested shortly after midnight, according to the complaint.

Officials said Varnell initially wanted to blow up the Federal Reserve Building in Washington, DC, with a bomb similar to the one used in the Oklahoma City bombing.

McVeigh was executed June 11, 2001, for the detonation of a truck bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal building on April 19, 1995.

The attack killed 168 people and injured more than 600 others.

Authorities were expected to announce Varnell’s arrest later Monday.