California leaders denounce comments as ‘deranged’ and ‘reckless’
President Donald Trump told supporters at a Monday night rally in Grand Island, Nebraska, that “They can take out a city,” and urged the audience to “Let them take out Los Angeles” and “Let them take out San Diego,” according to The Guardian’s account of the speech. The crowd at the Grand Island rally applauded, the newspaper reported.
At the same rally, Trump told supporters he hoped to see a “tremendous victory” in the fast-approaching November midterm elections. The comments came during a nearly hour-and-a-half speech in which Trump described high prices resulting from the war with Iran as “a small price to pay for keeping the world safe – keeping our country safe.” Trump framed the war’s economic impact as a necessary cost of confronting Iran and predicted the conflict would end quickly.
“It’ll be over very soon,” Trump said of the war, according to the report.
California Governor Gavin Newsom responded within hours, posting on X: “After sending the National Guard and Marines to occupy California, Donald Trump is now saying our foreign enemies should ‘take out’ Los Angeles and San Diego.” Newsom called Trump “deranged and dangerous” in the same post. Newsom, a Democrat who has clashed with Trump repeatedly over his two terms in office, said the president was “advocating for an attack on 10+ million U.S. residents in two of America’s largest cities.” “This is not normal. None of this is,” Newsom said. “And we will continue to remind folks of that every day.”
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass assailed Trump’s remarks as “irresponsible threats” that “could potentially compromise” the safety of America’s second-largest city. “The role of a president is to protect the country, not to actively threaten it and encourage attacks on American lives,” Bass said in a statement.
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said his city was “not collateral damage” in the president’s war. “We are not expendable. And we are never a ‘small price to pay,’” Gloria wrote on X. “Keep our city out of your reckless war talk.”
The remarks drew immediate debate about what the president meant. Some observers asked whether Trump, in a slip of the tongue, had disclosed confidential intelligence about potential Iranian targets. Others characterized the comments as a crude joke about two blue cities.
Some conservative activists argued that Trump, in his elliptical way of speaking, was referring to high gas prices when he said prices were a “small price to pay,” and not to the capacity of Iran to strike a US city. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Guardian.
US defense officials have previously stated that Iran currently lacks the capability to launch a direct missile attack on the US mainland. Trump has argued in previous speeches that allowing Iran to develop a nuclear weapon would threaten US cities; in his last State of the Union address, he claimed that Iran was working to build missiles that would “soon” reach US soil.
The Nebraska rally came as Republicans confront an unexpectedly close Senate race in the state. Trump insisted to the Grand Island crowd that he was “doing great” and urged supporters to “pretend like” his name was on the November midterm ballot.
In California, the president’s comments landed during a competitive gubernatorial race in which Steve Hilton, the Republican endorsed by Trump, is seeking an upset against the Democratic nominee, Xavier Becerra, who has sought to position himself as carrying forward the anti-Trump stance of the outgoing Newsom.
Becerra said “Thirteen million Californians call LA and San Diego counties home.” He added: “Their lives are not a ‘small price to pay’ or a punchline for Donald Trump.”
San Diego, the nation’s eighth-largest city, is home to critical US military infrastructure.