President Trump used a San Antonio campaign rally to insist the U.S. would block any Iranian strike on Los Angeles or San Diego, after his earlier comments about the two California cities set off a political uproar.
Trump brought up the cities again Wednesday while arguing that American action would prevent the kind of attack he had described earlier in the week.
“You want to see trauma? You want to see problems? And I said it the other day, let them hit a missile into San Diego or Los Angeles on the way. You want to see a horror show? Let them hit San Diego. Let them hit Los Angeles,” Trump said.
“You want to see some bad things happen? You want see a country in free fall? We’re not going to let that happen,” he continued.
The new remarks followed a Monday rally in Grand Island, Neb., where Trump defended the Iran conflict by arguing that the risk to California cities was outweighed by the stakes of protecting the U.S. and the rest of the world.
Trump: You wanna see trauma? You wanna see problems? I said it the other day, let them hit a missile into San Diego or Los Angeles on the way. You wanna see problems? Let them hit San Diego. Let them hit Los Angeles. You wanna see a country that would be in free fall, we're not… pic.twitter.com/Yad0NpyoR8
— Headquarters (@HQNewsNow) October 8, 2026
“It’s a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, for keeping our country safe,” Trump said Monday evening, adding that Iran could “take out a city.”
“Let ‘em take out Los Angeles, let ‘em take out San Diego,” he continued. “This is a very small price to pay, and it’s going to be over with very soon.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) responded Tuesday by telling multiple outlets Trump was “mentally ill” and urging officials to invoke the 25th Amendment.
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In a post on X, Newsom tied the remarks to Trump’s decision to send the National Guard and Marines 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 posted, calling him “deranged and dangerous.”
California Democrats focused their criticism on the millions of residents living in the places Trump named.
“Thirteen million Californians call LA and San Diego counties home. Their lives are not a ‘small price to pay’ or a punchline for Donald Trump,” California gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra posted.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D-CA) framed Trump’s words as a threat to public safety and to the city she leads.
“The President of the United States suggested that a foreign government attack Los Angeles. His statements against our city are dangerous and could potentially compromise our safety,” Bass said.
“The role of a president is to protect the country, not to actively threaten it and encourage attacks on American lives. In the face of irresponsible threats, as Angelenos, we know how to stand together and protect our city.”
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria (D-CA) warned Trump to “keep our city out of your reckless war talk.”
Los Angeles City Council member Nithya Raman, who is running against Bass, put the city’s population at the center of her response.
“This is reckless, dangerous, and unhinged. Four million Angelenos are not bargaining chips,” Raman wrote Tuesday.
A broader rebuke came from California’s Democratic congressional delegation, which demanded that Trump apologize to people living in the Los Angeles and San Diego metropolitan areas.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) chaired the delegation statement, which was joined by the state’s 40 House members and Sens. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Alex Padilla (D-CA).
“As members of the California Democratic Congressional Delegation, we call on President Trump to apologize to the over 16 million Americans who live in the Los Angeles and San Diego metropolitan areas and all Americans who expect more out of our President,” the delegation said.
The delegation accused Trump of seeming to welcome destruction of American cities while defending what members called his unconstitutional war with Iran.
“Upon taking office, the president swears to uphold the Constitution and to protect us from our enemies,” the delegation wrote. “Yesterday, President Trump, while defending his unconstitutional war against Iran, appeared, incredibly to invite Iran to destroy two American cities.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) added their own criticism on X.
“Deranged. Delusional. And soon to be defeated. Calling millions of Americans collateral damage in his illegal war that nobody asked for takes a special kind of depravity, the kind only a man as weak and feeble as Donald Trump could sink to,” Schumer tweeted.
“This is such a sick, evil thing to say. Especially because he’s not saying this as a joke. Just as sick that his supporters are laughing at it,” Murphy added.
Trump’s team countered that the president was warning about the threat from Iran, not inviting an attack on California.
“No, he didn’t, you buffoons. 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,” the White House Rapid Response account posted.
White House communications director Steven Cheung accused the press of misreading Trump’s meaning.
“The media freakout over President Trump’s comments is not rooted in reality,” Cheung wrote Tuesday on X.
“He was clearly stating U.S. 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,” he added.
Vice President Vance placed the nuclear dispute on Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile in a Tuesday Reuters interview, saying Tehran must take “meaningful” steps to move talks ahead.
“If you don’t want a nuclear weapon, then why do you need 60% enriched fuel? And if you want to show commitment to not building a nuclear weapon, don’t build highly enriched fuel. That’s a very basic threshold issue,” Vance said.
Vance said Washington was open to a deal if Iran agreed not to rebuild the nuclear program that the Trump administration claims was destroyed in June 2025 strikes.
“In other words, the United States is not going to do things for mere promise of actions on the Iranian side. We need to trade actions for actions here, and we’ll see what the Iranians do,” Vance said.
