▶ Watch Video: Trump suggests letting Iran “take out” LA, San Diego during campaign rally
Gov. Gavin Newsom rebuked President Trump after he appeared to suggest letting Iran “take out” Los Angeles and San Diego if the country developed a nuclear weapon.
At a campaign rally in Nebraska, Mr. Trump said the Iran war is “artificial,” but he wanted to see a “total victory.” He suggested the war is a “small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe.”
“It’s a little bit high,” the president appeared to say about gas prices. “It’s a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe. They can take out a city. Let them take, let it, let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego.”
Attendees appeared to cheer after his suggestion. It was not immediately clear what Mr. Trump meant, although the White House’s rapid response account on X insisted after the fact that the president’s words were being misinterpreted.
“He was saying the U.S. is 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,” the account said.
The comments were quickly condemned by Newsom and other California officials.
“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 wrote on X. “He is deranged and dangerous.”
“I am directing the State Threat Assessment Center to actively monitor the situation in the event that foreign actors interpret the president’s remarks as an invitation to target California,” Newsom added.
White House spokesperson Steven Cheung posted on X on Tuesday that “the media freakout” over Mr. Trump’s remarks is “not rooted in reality.”
“He was clearly stating U.S. cities would have been threatened if a nuclear Iran hadn’t been stopped,” Cheung continued. “America is safer because of the President. Iran has no nuclear, no navy, no air force, and no money.”
Mr. Trump also suggested the war in Iran “will end very quickly, one way or the other, very soon.”
In a statement to CBS News, Newsom then called for Mr. Trump to be removed from office under the 25th Amendment of the Constitution.
“Donald Trump is mentally ill. TIME FOR THE 25TH!” Newsom wrote.
In addition to being the country’s second-most populous city, LA is home to the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command Headquarters, aerospace contractors including Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrop Grumman, and federally funded research centers such as the RAND Corporation.
“The role of a president is to protect the country, not to actively threaten it and encourage attacks on American lives,” LA Mayor Karen Bass wrote on X.
At an event on Tuesday morning, Bass was asked by reporters her initial reaction to the president’s comments. She said she was shocked and added: “Maybe at this point I shouldn’t be, but I was just shocked.”
“That’s a president of the United States, inviting a country that we are at war with to attack an American city,” Bass told reporters.
San Diego, the nation’s eighth-largest city, has major military installations in and around it, including:
- Naval Base San Diego, the homeport of the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet
- Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, where 70,000 civilians and active-duty service members live and work
- Naval Amphibious Base Coronado, the main training ground for Navy SEALs on the West Coast
“San Diego is not collateral damage,” San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria wrote on X. “We are not expendable. And we are never a ‘small price to pay.’ Keep our city out of your reckless war talk.”
