Trump’s Nebraska rally remarks on Iran ‘taking out’ LA and San Diego draw bipartisan backlash and a White House defense

President Donald Trump made remarks about Iran potentially ‘taking out’ Los Angeles and San Diego at a rally in Nebraska on Monday, triggering bipartisan backlash from California officials and members of his own party. The White House swiftly defended the comments, insisting Trump was warning about the dangers of a nuclear-armed Iran rather than inviting an attack on American cities.

Speaking about the US-Iran war, Trump told the crowd: ‘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 out Los Angeles, let them take out San Diego.’ There were cheers from sections of the audience as he made the comments about the two Californian cities. The remarks, made in the context of the ongoing conflict, were swiftly seized on by critics who interpreted them as a suggestion that American cities could be sacrificed.

White House calls it a warning, not an invitation

The White House dismissed the criticism as a ‘media freakout’ that ‘is not rooted in reality.’ White House Communications Director Steven Cheung wrote that Trump was clearly stating US 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,’ Cheung wrote. The official White House rapid response account echoed that framing, posting that Trump was saying the US is fighting to STOP Iran from having the ability to take out LA and San Diego with a nuclear weapon.

California officials mobilize

California Governor Gavin Newsom condemned the comments as ‘deranged and dangerous’ and directed California’s State Threat Assessment Center to monitor the situation in case foreign actors interpret the remarks as an invitation to target California. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass described the comments as threats and an attempt to ‘encourage attacks on American lives.’ San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria wrote that the city was not collateral damage and demanded Trump keep it out of his ‘reckless war talk.’ The responses from California’s leadership came within a day of the Nebraska rally, as officials weighed the security implications of the president’s words and the risk that adversaries might read them as a green light.

Two cities heavy with military installations

San Diego sits 17 miles from the Mexican border and is the eighth largest US city. It is home to Naval Base San Diego, the home port of the US Navy’s Pacific Fleet. Naval Amphibious Base Coronado, the main Navy SEAL training centre on the West Coast, is also there. Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, where 70,000 service members and civilians work, is located in the region as well. Los Angeles lies approximately 120 miles north of San Diego and is the second most populous city in the US. It is home to the US Space Force’s space system command headquarters and the Los Angeles Air Force Base.

Republicans break ranks

Jim Desmond, a Republican running for the House of Representatives near San Diego, distanced himself from Trump’s statement. ‘No American city is expendable, and no American family should ever be treated as collateral damage,’ he wrote. Kevin Kiley, an independent who caucuses with Republicans and is running for re-election in northern California, called Trump’s comments ‘unhelpful.’ The US-Iran war is now in its eighth month, and polling shows the conflict is widely unpopular in the US. All 435 House seats and a third of the Senate are up for grabs in November’s midterms. California has 52 House seats, the most of any state.

Trump and Newsom have clashed before. The two faced off over Trump’s deployment of federal troops and the National Guard to California related to immigration enforcement in the Los Angeles area. Newsom said Trump sent 700 active duty Marines and the National Guard into Los Angeles. In December, a federal judge ruled the deployment illegal and ordered its end. Newsom is a possible contender in the 2028 presidential race.

Trump has repeatedly promised the war would end soon, though no lasting ceasefire has been reached. At the rally, he said the war would be ‘over with very soon.’