Newsom calls remarks ‘dangerous – if not treasonous’
LOS ANGELES — Residents of Los Angeles and San Diego awoke Tuesday to news that President Donald Trump, speaking at a Nebraska rally the night before, had mused before a cheering crowd that perhaps a foreign power could “take out” their cities. Their reactions ranged from fury to dismissive incredulity, even as a record-breaking heatwave pushed temperatures toward the triple digits.
The president’s comments prompted immediate bipartisan condemnation. California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement that the remarks were “dangerous – if not treasonous – putting a target on two of our biggest cities and one of America’s largest naval hubs.”
For some Los Angeles residents, the comments fit a longer-running pattern. Jessica, a 28-year-old Los Angeles hair stylist, was scrolling through social media early Tuesday morning when she was shocked to see that Trump had just suggested Iran should decimate her hometown. She spoke to The Guardian while waiting for a Waymo outside a grocery store in Koreatown and declined to give her last name out of fear for the safety of her Mexican-born parents. She said the remarks marked a new low for a president who had already spent years attacking immigrant families like hers.
“I was just thinking what the fuck is wrong with him?” she said. “He hates us. He hates LA. He hates any Democratic state … It’s just a really sad situation.”
During a bustling lunch service at Grand Central Market, a food hall in downtown Los Angeles, tourists and residents milled between taco stands and dumpling stalls. Many had yet to hear of the president’s threats, until asked by a reporter. One of those who had was Jens Midthun, a downtown resident who often stops at the market for coffee.
“Trump has tried to paint Los Angeles as a dystopia despite it being a wonderful place,” said Midthun, sipping an iced coffee under a shaded outdoor table as the temperature approached the triple digits. Midthun serves as president of the downtown Los Angeles neighborhood council, but spoke only on his own behalf.
“It reminded me that the president is obsessed with us – obsessed with California, obsessed with Los Angeles,” Midthun said. “We try not to think about him and yet, here he is with Los Angeles’s name right there in his mouth.”
California residents told The Guardian they see Trump’s comments as part of the president’s fixation on tearing down west coast progressivism and diversity, most visibly through the deployment of national guard troops in Los Angeles during a series of brutal ICE raids in 2025.
In San Diego, the reaction carried particular weight because of the city’s deep military ties. Gil Field, communications director for San Diego Veterans for Peace, a group that opposes the war, called Trump’s statement “so irrational” that it was “hard to explain exactly what he was saying, but it sounded like he was willing to give us up.”
“It’s horrible and we’re horrified,” Field said.
San Diego County is home to roughly a quarter-million veterans and one of the largest concentrations of military personnel in the United States. According to a report released last year, military activity supports nearly 357,000 local jobs, representing $61.3 billion of the county economy. Defense spending accounts for 22% of the region’s gross product, and one in four active-duty Marines is based in San Diego, where multiple naval bases and Marine Corps installations operate.
“This is a military town, so you’ve got bipartisan objections to his comments,” Field said, noting that there were always concerns that San Diego could be targeted in war because of the heavy military presence. “So for him to say this about San Diego is particularly galling. He did San Diego a disservice.”
Jim Desmond, a Republican naval veteran running for a congressional seat in San Diego, also offered a pointed rebuke on X. “I served to protect Americans, not write off American cities as an acceptable price of war,” Desmond wrote. “Our job is to keep Americans safe, stand up to our enemies, and make sure a threat like that never becomes reality.”
“No American city is expendable,” Desmond added, “and no American family should ever be treated as collateral damage.”
Midthun returned to the theme of Los Angeles as a target of presidential rhetoric, describing the city as “an economic powerhouse and vibrant cultural center sandwiched between the beach and the mountains, and enriched by some of the largest diaspora communities from across the world – South Korea, Mexico, El Salvador, Armenia and even Iran.”
“The president keeps talking about us, and talking about us,” Midthun said. “He’s got a lot of issues to solve. He should work on those issues instead of obsessing over the beautiful, great people of Los Angeles.”