Elected officials across the political aisle continued to denounce President Donald Trump Tuesday after a speech in which he addressed the ongoing Iran war and rising prices by seemingly offering up Los Angeles and San Diego as potential targets.
“They can take out a city. Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego,” he told a rowdy crowd of Nebraska Republicans Monday night.
Officials quickly took to social media to blast the president.
Gov. Gavin Newsom called Trump “deranged and dangerous” for telling foreign adversaries to “take out” California cities. Newsom also called out the President for making these comments after sending the National Guard and Marines to the state.
But it wasn’t just Trump opponents who took their outrage to X. Jim Desmond, the Trump-backed Republican for District 48, said he “vehemently” disagrees with Trump in this case.
“As a Navy veteran, I served to protect Americans, not write off American cities as an acceptable price of war. Our job is to keep Americans safe, stand up to our enemies, and make sure a threat like that never becomes reality,” Desmond posted. “No American city is expendable, and no American family should ever be treated as collateral damage.”
Desmond’s opponent, San Diego city councilmember Marni von Wilpert, issued a statement of her own, going so far as describing the comment as an impeachable offense.
“That is appalling and terrifying,” von Wilpert said. “Californians are already paying for this terrible war every time we fill up the tank. Now, the President is talking about a foreign government attacking a United States city as if it was just the cost of doing business.”
Trump’s comments come at a time when nearly 70% of Americans say the US war in Iran is not worth fighting, according to the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
The public disapproval of the war is often tied to the rising cost of goods. Of adults in the U.S., 65% attribute higher prices, such as the average cost of a gallon of gas rising to $6.39 in California, to Trump’s policies, AP-NORC found.
“This is a very small price to pay and it’s gonna be over with very soon,” he said of the war.
Trump continues to say the war will be over soon. But he’s made that claim since the early weeks of the war, which began Feb. 28.
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria joined outraged Californians in pushing back against the president, telling him to keep San Diego out of his war rhetoric.
“We are not expendable. And we are never a ‘small price to pay,’” he wrote on X. “Keep our city out of your reckless war talk.”
In a statement Tuesday, he focused on the region’s military, saying that “San Diego serves America. We are an anchor of our nation’s security in the Pacific and home to one of the largest concentrations of military assets in the world … San Diegans deserve a President who values their lives, honors the service and sacrifice of our military families, and takes seriously his responsibility as Commander in Chief. President Trump should retract these remarks and apologize to the people of San Diego.”
City council members also were outraged.
“Every elected leader in San Diego, regardless of party, should condemn these comments without qualification,” wrote Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera. “Our lives are not bargaining chips.”
Councilmember Raul Campillo said calling for violence against our own people is “disgusting.” “But it’s also stupid beyond belief,” in noting, like Gloria, San Diego’s huge military presence and veteran population.
County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer also issued a statement, accusing Trump of not being “fit to lead.”
“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,” she said. “Trump is a traitor to our security, to our values, and to our Country.”
Whether the statement was meant as a joke or was Trump going off script again is unclear, but Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said his suggestion to a foreign government amounts to “irresponsible threats.”
“His statements against our city are dangerous and could potentially compromise our safety,” she posted on X. “The role of a president is to protect the country, not to actively threaten it and encourage attacks on American lives.”
Trump and the Republicans are attempting an uphill climb to maintain their majority in Congress, despite their actions on war and foreign policy, which so far have been losers for the party.
In response to a Los Angeles Times’ article about Trump’s statements in Nebraska, the Official White House Rapid Response account opted to position the president’s comments as a defense of San Diego and Los Angeles. The account instead called out “buffoons” for interpreting his words as an attack.
“No, he didn’t, you buffoons,” they posted in response to the article. “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.”
Drew Sitton contributed to this report.
Updated 11:25 a.m. Oct. 6, 2026
