{"id":226744,"date":"2026-10-07T00:15:59","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T00:15:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trumps-suggestion-that-iran-could-take-out-la-or-san-diego-draws-republican-rebuke-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T00:15:59","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T00:15:59","slug":"trumps-suggestion-that-iran-could-take-out-la-or-san-diego-draws-republican-rebuke-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trumps-suggestion-that-iran-could-take-out-la-or-san-diego-draws-republican-rebuke-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s suggestion that Iran could \u2018take out\u2019 LA or San Diego draws Republican rebuke – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gavin Newsom said state\u2019s threat-assessment center would be on heightened alert after president\u2019s remarks
California\u2019s governor, Gavin Newsom, on Tuesday directed the state\u2019s emergency preparedness center to \u201cactively monitor\u201d possible threats to the state after Donald Trump<\/a> suggested<\/a> Iran could \u201ctake out\u201d the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego.
Trump has faced a chorus of condemnation from Democratic leaders in California<\/a> after his comments at a rally in Nebraska on Monday night, which the White House has suggested were being taken out of context.
At the president\u2019s rally in Grand Island, Nebraska, Trump claimed that high prices due to the war with Iran<\/a> are a \u201csmall price to pay for keeping the world safe \u2013 keeping our country safe\u201d. He went on: \u201cThey can take out a city. Let them take out Los Angeles<\/a>. Let them take out San Diego.\u201d The crowd applauded the line.
\u201cDonald Trump\u2019s remarks were dangerous \u2013 if not treasonous \u2013 putting a target on two of our biggest cities and one of America\u2019s largest naval hubs,\u201d Newsom said in a post on X, adding that the state\u2019s threat-assessment center would be on heightened alert \u201cin the event that foreign actors interpret the President\u2019s remarks as an invitation to target California\u201d.
From the governor\u2019s press office<\/a> account, he taunted California Republicans for their \u201cradio silence\u201d in response the president\u2019s bombastic remark.
But one Republican House candidate, Jim Desmond, who is running in a competitive San Diego-based seat, pushed back.
\u201cAmerica must stand up to Iran<\/a> and defend our interests, but the first responsibility of our commander in chief is to protect the American people and our homeland,\u201d Desmond, a former mayor of San Marcos, said in a statement.
It is a notable rebuke from a Republican in a closely watched contest that could help the party retain their razor-thin majority in the lower chamber.
Desmond is set to face Marni Von Wilpert, a lawyer and member of San Diego\u2019s city council, for the state\u2019s 48th congressional district \u2013 which was redrawn in response to Proposition 50.
Desmond, also a navy veteran, said that he \u201cserved to protect Americans, not write off American cities as an acceptable price of war\u201d.
\u201cNo American city is expendable, and no American family should ever be treated as collateral damage,\u201d he added.
He joined a string of prominent Democrats who called out the comments. Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, said: \u201cThe nuclear annihilation of an American city is no laughing matter.\u201d
Xavier Becerra, the Democratic nominee for governor vying to succeed Newsom, said he wasn\u2019t surprised by the president\u2019s comments.
\u201cDonald Trump is a known commodity \u2013 you know how he acts, you know how he behaves,\u201d Becerra told reporters at a campaign event in Los Angeles on Tuesday. But he took a jab at Republicans<\/a> who \u201cprofess that they should be the leaders of our state\u201d but aren\u2019t willing to \u201cstand up to Donald Trump\u201d.
Becerra\u2019s Republican rival, Steve Hilton, did not return a request for comment.
But many Trump supporters dismissed the uproar. Blake Marnell, who wears a brick-patterned suit to resemble Trump\u2019s border wall, lives in San Diego and was at the rally in Nebraska. He said by phone on Tuesday: \u201cI defend his comments absolutely. It is not inappropriate to mention something like that now because you have to take it in the context in which it is spoken. If you look at that context, it\u2019s appropriate for a rally in which the president is addressing his base.\u201d
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Marnell added: \u201cThe Democrats have a long and storied history of flying off the handle at any remark that President Trump makes, and this is just another chapter in that history, and I ascribe no significance to it, and in two days no one will be talking about it.\u201d
Darrell Issa, a Republican congressman who represents parts of southern California<\/a>, did not directly respond to an inquiry about Trump\u2019s remarks, but defended the president in a statement, saying he had \u201ctaken historic and concrete action to eliminate the nuclear threat, protect every inch of our homeland, and ensure Iran never threatens America or her allies ever again\u201d.
Paula Whitsell, chair of the Republican party of San Diego county, criticized what she called the \u201cbiased media\u201d for taking the president\u2019s remarks \u201ccompletely out of context\u201d.
\u201cNo one should believe for a single moment that he wants ANY American city attacked,\u201d Whitsell said in a statement. \u201cThe president was simply speaking to his belief that confronting Iran is worth it to eliminate the threat to our country and named two cities as an example of what could happen if we don\u2019t act, not as an invitation for them to be attacked.\u201d
The White House also insisted that Trump was being willfully misinterpreted.
Steven Cheung, its director of communications, posted on X<\/a>: \u201cThe media freakout over President Trump\u2019s comments is not rooted in reality. He was clearly stating U.S. cities would have been threatened if a nuclear Iran hadn\u2019t been stopped. America is safer because of the President. Iran has no nuclear, no navy, no air force, and no money.\u201d
The White House\u2019s \u201cRapid Response 47\u201d account called<\/a> the Los Angeles Times newspaper \u201cbuffoons\u201d and insisted that Trump was saying the US is \u201cfighting to STOP Iran from having the ability to take out LA and San Diego with a nuclear weapon \u2013 which they would if they had the chance.\u201d
<\/span> This article was amended on 6 October 2026. A previous headline implied it was Trump\u2019s suggestion to \u201ctake out\u201d LA or San Diego. Trump suggested that Iran could do so.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gavin Newsom said state\u2019s threat-assessment center would be on heightened alert after president\u2019s remarksCalifornia\u2019s governor, Gavin Newsom, on Tuesday directed the state\u2019s emergency preparedness center to \u201cactively monitor\u201d possible threats to the state after Donald Trump suggested Iran could \u201ctake out\u201d the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego.Trump has faced a chorus of condemnation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":226745,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-226744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}