White House Defends Trump 'Take Out LA' Remark — SkimNews
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- Trump told a Nebraska campaign rally that Iran could 'take out' Los Angeles and San Diego, calling it 'a small price to pay for keeping the world safe' — remarks that drew cheers from sections of the audience.
- Governor Gavin Newsom called the comments 'deranged and dangerous' and directed California's State Threat Assessment Center to monitor the situation, citing concern that foreign actors might interpret the remarks as an invitation to target the state.
- LA Mayor Karen Bass labeled the comments as threats and attempts to 'encourage attacks on American lives,' while San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said the city was not 'collateral damage' and demanded Trump keep it out of his 'reckless war talk.'
- White House Communications Director Stephen Cheung dismissed the 'media freakout' as 'not rooted in reality,' saying Trump was stating US cities would have been threatened if 'a nuclear Iran hadn't been stopped' and adding: 'Iran has no nuclear, no navy, no air force, and no money.'
- The White House rapid response account called Los Angeles Times journalists covering the story 'buffoons' and reiterated that Trump was arguing the US is fighting to stop Iran from being able to take out those cities with a nuclear weapon.
- San Diego and Los Angeles both host major US military installations central to Pacific operations — Naval Base San Diego (home port of the Pacific Fleet), Naval Amphibious Base Coronado (West Coast Navy SEALs training), Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton (70,000 workers), and the Space Force's Space Systems Command and Los Angeles Air Force Base.
Why it matters: Newsom's activation of the California State Threat Assessment Center — the agency built to detect and prevent threats to California — for a sitting president's own rhetoric is an unusual escalation that converts a campaign-rally remark into a matter of state security monitoring. With both named cities hosting critical Pacific military infrastructure, the feud carries concrete national-security stakes on top of the personal clash as Newsom weighs a 2028 run.
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