Apart from a couple of second unit shots of Washington DC and one scene shot in a park, all filming took place on sound stages in Montreal, Canada, with extensive blue screen techniques used to create the "world" around each set where required.
The book by author Vince Flynn, "Transfer of Power," was basis for both of the movie plots used in "White House Down" and "Olympus Has Fallen - Die Welt in Gefahr (2013)" in 2013.
Channing Tatum was not interested in making the film at first because he had resolved not to play any characters who spent the entire movie holding a gun, but he liked the script and decided to meet to discuss the role of John Cale with Roland Emmerich; the meeting went so well that Tatum agreed to take the role immediately afterwards.
Matt Craven plays Agent Roy Kellerman. Roy Kellerman was the name of the secret service agent that was seated in the front seat of the presidential limousine when President Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963.
The White House Tour Guide played by Nicolas Wright briefly shows the group the White House's film room, and mentions that they are in the part that was blown up in Independence Day. Roland Emmerich, this film's director, also directed Independence Day (1996), and attended the screening of that film at the White House in that very film room when Bill Clinton was President. Wright would later play Floyd Rosenburg in Independence Day: Wiederkehr (2016), just three years later.