Trump Outrages Dems & Republicans Alike With Garbled ‘Take Out Los Angeles’ Line

President Trump addressed a full house for his Monday night midterm campaign rally in Grand Island, Nebraska – but his comments on the Iran war, gas prices, and musings about a nuclear weapon taking out American cities created an avalanche of controversy.

Making the case for his launching Operation Epic Fury, Trump at one point in the speech said, “They could take out a city,” and then: “Let ‘em take out Los Angeles. Let ‘em take out San Diego.” The clip went viral on various social media platforms, especially ones that didn’t convey the full context. Though Trump’s rhetorical ordering of what he was trying to convey was clearly mangled and off, he was actually expressing a warning and not a wish.

Regardless, it wasn’t just prominent Democrats that expressed shock and outrage at what was widely construed as him suggesting he’d be okay with the Iranians nuking a couple California cities, but some Republicans too. For example a Trump-endorsed Republican who is seeking an open House seat in California, Jim Desmond, stated he “vehemently” disagreed with the comments.

“The first responsibility of our commander in chief is to protect the American people and our homeland,” he wrote online. “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. No American city is expendable, and no American family should ever be treated as collateral damage.”

Naturally, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California also blasted the president’s remarks. “After sending the National Guard and Marines to occupy California,” he stated, “Donald Trump is now saying our foreign enemies should ‘take out’ Los Angeles and San Diego.“

Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles said she was “just shocked” at Trump’s remarks and called for an immediate retraction and apology. “It would really be helpful to our city if you would apologize and say, of course, you would never stand for a foreign power attacking a U.S. city,” she said. “That is the appropriate response the day after from the president of the United States.” She has of course frequently been on the receiving end of Trump’s attacks.

The White House issued official response on Tuesday, pointing out that intent matters and implying that Trump’s off-the-cuff, hyperbolic, and rambling style are being willfully misinterpreted. Here’s the explanation by White House’s communications director, Steven Cheung:

“The media freakout over President Trump’s comments is not rooted in reality. 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.”

Not helping matters was that the crowd loudly cheered at the moment he mentioned “let them take out Las Angeles… San Diego…”.

Trump on Iran: Let ‘em take out Los Angeles and San Diego, it’s a small price to pay https://t.co/Fc4BcjVDKj

— Headquarters (@HQNewsNow) October 6, 2026

What follows is an exact transcript of what Trump said:

I want to see a tremendous victory. You want to see a tremendous victory because it verifies all the things we did. And again, remember, with the war, it’s just artificial. It’s a little bit high. It’s a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe.

They can take out a city. Let them take, let them take out Los Angeles; let them take out San Diego. That’s — this is a very small price to pay, and it’s going to be over with very soon. It’s essentially almost over with.

And they might keep going a little long. You know, they always say they have a big threshold for pain. They need it. Let me tell you, they need it. But it’s going to end very soon. And it’ll end one way or the other. And your gas and your gasoline and all of the things.

And don’t forget, we also took on a country known as Venezuela. They never talk about that. They never talk about Venezuela. And we’re taking in hundreds of millions of barrels of oil every week. We’re pouring oil. We’re pouring oil into this country like nobody’s ever seen before.

Deleted post griping about what Trump said about Los Angeles and San Diego being nuked by Iran. Now that I’ve seen the clip, it was clear that he simply wasn’t speaking clearly, that he was WARNING that this could happen, not wishing for it. I apologize.

— Rod Dreher (@roddreher) October 6, 2026

With all of the above having been laid out, it remains that even what Trump was trying to say is bad enough. He’s engaging in a pattern of classic fearmongering which seems to borrow straight from the NeoCon Bush-era playbook on the Iraq war.

He just days prior did the same in Alabama, though it was much more coherent.

TRUMP SAYS HIGH OIL PRICES A SMALL PRICE TO PAY, IRAN WOULD HAVE NUKED ALABAMA *** https://t.co/MH17sEhNZp

— The_Real_Fly (@The_Real_Fly) October 3, 2026

Read our: Mushroom Cloud Over Alabama: Trump Just Pulled A Condoleezza Rice. Ultimately, there’s no need to misinterpret the comments – the classic fearmongering itself is bad enough and is what should form the crux of the debate over Trump’s stance.