White House says Trump described preventing nuclear Iran, not accepting attacks
At his Nebraska rally on Monday night, Trump said high prices driven by the war with Iran were a “small price to pay for keeping the world safe – keeping our country safe.” He continued: “They can take out a city. Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego.” The crowd at the rally applauded, according to The Guardian.
The remarks drew condemnation from California Democrats within hours. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said: “The nuclear annihilation of an American city is no laughing matter.” Terra Lawson-Remer, chair of the San Diego board of supervisors, said in a statement: “My grandfather was a Marine. He died fighting for our country … When the Commander in Chief talks about San Diego being ‘taken out’ by other countries with whom we’re at war, he is not fit to lead. Trump is a traitor to our security, to our values, and to our Country.”
Tom Cochran, head of the United States Conference of Mayors, said Trump “crossed a line that no president should ever approach.” Cochran added: “No American President should ever describe an attack on an American city by a hostile foreign power as acceptable. Not at a rally, not as a joke, not under any circumstances.”
The most significant Republican response came from Jim Desmond, who is running in California’s 48th congressional district. “America must stand up to Iran and defend our interests, but the first responsibility of our Commander in Chief is to protect the American people and our homeland,” Desmond, the former mayor of San Marcos, said in a statement. He added that he “served to protect Americans, not write off American cities as an acceptable price of war.” He said: “No American city is expendable, and no American family should ever be treated as collateral damage.”
The rebuke is notable because Desmond is a Navy veteran competing in a closely watched House race against Marni Von Wilpert, a San Diego city council member and lawyer. The 48th district was redrawn in response to Proposition 50 and could help determine which party controls the lower chamber; Republicans currently hold a razor-thin majority.
The White House pushed back against the criticism. Steven Cheung, the White House director of communications, posted on X: “The media freakout over President Trump’s comments is not rooted in reality. He was clearly stating U.S. cities would have been threatened if a nuclear Iran hadn’t been stopped. America is safer because of the President. Iran has no nuclear, no navy, no air force, and no money.” The White House’s “Rapid Response 47” account called the Los Angeles Times “buffoons” and said Trump was “fighting to STOP Iran from having the ability to take out LA and San Diego with a nuclear weapon — which they would if they had the chance.”
Trump supporters dismissed the backlash. Blake Marnell, a San Diego resident who attended the Nebraska rally wearing a brick-patterned suit to resemble Trump’s border wall, defended the comments by phone Tuesday. “I defend his comments absolutely,” Marnell said. “It is not inappropriate to mention something like that now because you have to take it in the context in which it is spoken. If you look at that context, it’s appropriate for a rally in which the president is addressing his base.” He added: “The Democrats have a long and storied history of flying off the handle at any remark that President Trump makes, and this is just another chapter in that history, and I ascribe no significance to it, and in two days no one will be talking about it.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom also criticized the comments. Republicans have largely remained silent in the face of the criticism.