'Let Them Take Out Los Angeles, Let Them Take Out San Diego': Trump Just Said It — and California Erupted
In 60 seconds: At a midterm rally in Nebraska on Monday, President Trump said soaring oil prices from the Iran war were “a small price to pay for keeping the world safe” — then added that Iran could “take out Los Angeles” and San Diego. California’s governor called him “deranged and dangerous.” The White House says the whole thing is a media freakout.
- Trump, campaigning in Nebraska on Oct. 6: “It’s a little bit high. It’s a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe” — his defense of rising fuel prices tied to the Iran war.
- Then came the line that detonated the news cycle: “They can take out a city. Let them take, let them take out Los Angeles, let them take out San Diego. This is a very small price to pay, and it’s going to be over with very soon.”
- Gov. Gavin Newsom fired back on X: Trump is “saying our foreign enemies should ‘take out’ Los Angeles and San Diego. He is deranged and dangerous.” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries: “The nuclear annihilation of an American city is no laughing matter.”
- The White House pushed back hard. Communications Director Steven Cheung called the reaction a “media freakout” “not rooted in reality,” insisting Trump meant those cities would have been threatened if a nuclear-armed Iran hadn’t been stopped.
- The clip went viral days after the U.S. pulled its B-1 bombers out of RAF Fairford over Iranian threats — the Iran confrontation is now the backdrop of the entire midterm campaign.
Presidents say things at rallies that their staffs spend the next day explaining. On Monday night in Nebraska, Donald Trump handed his team a doozy — one that lit up California, cable news, and X within minutes of the clip going viral.
What happened
Trump was doing what he’s been doing all month: campaigning for Republicans ahead of the November 3 midterms. In Nebraska on Monday, he turned to the Iran war — the confrontation that’s pushed Brent crude past $103 a barrel — and told the crowd that higher prices were worth it.
“It’s a little bit high,” he said of the price of oil. “It’s a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe.”
Then he went further. Speaking about the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran, Trump said: “They can take out a city. Let them take, let them take out Los Angeles, let them take out San Diego. This is a very small price to pay, and it’s going to be over with very soon.”
The phrasing — casual, almost tossed off — is what made it travel. Viral footage of the remarks spread across social media within hours, and Democrats pounced.
Latest verified facts
Gov. Gavin Newsom, California’s Democratic governor, went straight at it on X: “Donald Trump is now saying our foreign enemies should ‘take out’ Los Angeles and San Diego. He is deranged and dangerous.” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries added: “The nuclear annihilation of an American city is no laughing matter.”
California is firmly Democratic territory — both cities sit in a state the party controls — and the comments landed there like a provocation. The Los Angeles Times ran with the interpretation that Trump had suggested letting Iran hit the two cities.
The White House’s response was swift and furious. Communications Director Steven Cheung wrote on X that Trump “was clearly stating US cities would have been threatened if a nuclear Iran hadn’t been stopped,” branding the reaction a “media freakout” that was “not rooted in reality.” The White House’s Rapid Response account took aim at the Times directly: “No, he didn’t, you buffoons. He was saying the US 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.”
For the record: Trump’s point, in context, was that preventing a nuclear Iran justified economic pain. His critics heard a president treating two American cities as expendable talking points. Both readings are now fighting it out in public.
Why it matters
Here’s the thing: presidents don’t get to muse casually about foreign enemies “taking out” American cities. Not even hypothetically, not even in service of a larger argument. The line lands differently when it’s coming from the commander in chief of the country whose bombers just got pulled out of a British air base because of — per U.S. and U.K. officials — credible Iranian threats.
The timing sharpens everything. This is the same week the Pentagon moved a dozen B-1s out of RAF Fairford, the same week a federal budget fight and the midterms are converging. Trump is on the road selling voters on the Iran war’s costs; Democrats are on X selling the opposite. A quote like this doesn’t just survive the news cycle — it gets embalmed in it. Expect it in midterm ads by the weekend.
And then there’s the substance underneath the outrage: oil. Trump’s whole riff was a defense of high fuel prices. With Brent over $103 and American drivers feeling it at the pump, “a small price to pay” is exactly the kind of line opponents clip and replay in gas-station country.
Impact on the USA and the world
For American voters, the episode crystallizes the Iran war debate: the administration says stopping a nuclear Iran is worth any price; critics say the president is flippant about the price and the places. For allies watching from Europe and the Gulf — countries already rattled by tanker strikes and the Fairford pullback — it’s another signal that Washington’s Iran policy is being conducted at rally-podium volume.
For Tehran, it’s free material. Iranian state media needs no translation help with a U.S. president naming his own cities in a sentence about Iranian weapons.
Related coverage: ‘They Didn’t Fly Out by Accident’: U.S. Pulls Its B-1 Bombers Out of RAF Fairford Over ‘Some Threats’ · 9,000 Troops, 3 Carriers, One Chilling Warning: Inside America’s Massive Iran Build-Up · Trump’s $20M Ad Blitz Has a ‘God Made Trump’ Spot — and You’re Paying for All of It
What happens next
Watch three things. First, whether Trump clarifies, doubles down, or ignores it — his instinct with rally controversies is usually the second option. Second, whether Newsom escalates: the governor has made a habit of turning Trump fights into national moments, and he rarely lets a clean hit go unused. Third, whether the quote shows up in Democratic midterm advertising, because “deranged and dangerous” is practically a script.
Our take: the quote’s real cost to Trump isn’t in California — he’s not winning California anyway. It’s in the suburbs and the swing states, where “a small price to pay” meets $4-a-gallon gas. That’s where this one will be decided.