Trump let Iran take out Los Angeles
GRAND ISLAND, Neb. — President Donald Trump told a midterm-election rally crowd Monday night that Iran could "take out" Los Angeles or San Diego and it would be "a very small price to pay," remarks that drew immediate condemnation from California's governor and the mayors of both cities.
Speaking at the Nebraska State Fairgrounds in Grand Island, where he was campaigning for incumbent Sen. Pete Ricketts and Gov. Jim Pillen ahead of November's midterm elections, Trump was defending the economic costs of the war with Iran — including higher gasoline prices — when he made the comments.
"They can take out a city. Let 'em take out Los Angeles, let 'em take out San Diego. This is a very small price to pay," Trump said, according to multiple outlets that reviewed video of the rally.
Trump's stated case: the price of keeping the country safe
The remarks came as part of a broader argument Trump has made repeatedly: that the costs Americans are bearing from the Iran war — which he described as "a little bit high" at the gas pump — are justified because the alternative is worse.
"It's a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe," Trump said at the rally. He framed the economic pain as temporary and the stakes as existential: enduring higher prices now, in his telling, is what prevents a far greater threat later.
Trump also told the crowd the war is nearing its end. "It's going to be over with very soon," he said. "It's essentially almost over with." He added that Iran has "a big threshold for pain" and "they need it" — suggesting, in his framing, that continued pressure is working and the conflict will conclude "one way or the other."
The backlash: "deranged and dangerous"
California leaders responded within hours, and their objections were unsparing.
Gov. Gavin Newsom linked the remarks to the administration's recent deployments of federal forces into California. "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."
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called the remarks "dangerous," saying they could "potentially compromise our safety." "The President of the United States suggested that a foreign government attack Los Angeles," Bass wrote. "The role of a president is to protect the country, not to actively threaten it and encourage attacks on American lives."
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria rejected the premise outright. "San Diego is not collateral damage," Gloria wrote. "We are not expendable. And we are never a 'small price to pay.' Keep our city out of your reckless war talk."
The critics' core argument, as stated: a president musing about American cities being destroyed — even hypothetically, even to make a point about costs — normalizes the idea of those cities as expendable and, in Bass's words, could compromise public safety by inviting threats.
What both sides are really arguing about
Strip away the heat, and the dispute is about what "the price" of the war actually is — and who gets to define it.
Trump's camp frames the price in economic and strategic terms: higher gas prices and a prolonged conflict are, in this telling, the tolerable cost of neutralizing Iran and keeping America safe, with the end of the war in sight. The Los Angeles and San Diego lines, in the most charitable reading his supporters offer, were rhetorical excess meant to underscore that no cost is too great for national safety — not a literal wish for destruction.
His critics frame the price in human and civic terms: the two cities Trump named are home to more than 5 million people combined, plus major military installations — including Naval Base San Diego, a key Pacific Fleet port — international trade hubs, and critical infrastructure. To them, treating those cities as hypothetical bargaining chips is itself the danger, regardless of intent.
One factual note both sides must contend with: Iran's missiles currently do not have the capability to reach the United States, as multiple outlets noted in their coverage. The scenario Trump described is not one military analysts consider plausible with Iran's current arsenal.
The political context
The rally was not about California. Trump was in deep-red Nebraska to boost Ricketts and Pillen five weeks before the midterms, and the Iran war's economic fallout — gas prices, diesel costs — is a live issue with voters there. The "small price to pay" framing is aimed at persuading Americans feeling pinched at the pump that the sacrifice serves a larger purpose.
But the California angle landed because of the broader backdrop: Newsom's reference to National Guard and Marine deployments points to an already-strained relationship between the White House and the state, and the remarks instantly became a midterm flashpoint — with California Democrats casting them as proof of disregard, and Trump allies likely to cast the backlash as deliberate misreading of obvious rhetoric.
What happens next
The White House has not clarified the remarks as of publication. Expect California Democrats to keep the clip in heavy rotation through November, and expect Trump's orbit to insist the words were about resolve, not real intent. The underlying question — how much economic pain Americans will accept for the Iran war, and for how long — will be answered at the ballot box and at the pump, not on a rally stage in Nebraska.
Sources
- USA Today: Trump sparks outrage with remarks about LA, San Diego at rally — Full quote ("They can take out a city. Let 'em take out Los Angeles, let 'em take out San Diego. This is a very small price to pay"), "small price to pay for keeping the world safe" framing, Newsom/Bass/Gloria responses.
- FOX 11 Los Angeles: Trump suggests Iran could 'take out' Los Angeles during Nebraska rally — Bass statement ("dangerous and could potentially compromise our safety"), Newsom X post, rally context.
- TMZ: President Trump Suggests That Iran 'Take Out' Los Angeles and San Diego — Rally details (Nebraska State Fairgrounds, Grand Island), "essentially almost over with" quote, Bass and Gloria reactions.
- MeidasNews: Trump Says to Let Iran 'Take Out' Los Angeles, San Diego in Nebraska Speech — Extended transcript ("It's a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe"), note that Iran's missiles cannot reach the U.S., war-end prediction.
Quotations in this article are as reported by USA Today, FOX 11 Los Angeles, TMZ, and MeidasNews from video of the October 5, 2026 rally in Grand Island, Nebraska, and from the public social-media statements of Gov. Gavin Newsom, Mayor Karen Bass, and Mayor Todd Gloria. Signal Post News has not independently verified the rally video. The assessment of Iranian missile range reflects reporting by the cited outlets, not independent Signal Post News analysis.