Governor Gavin Newsom said President Donald Trump was talking about Los Angeles and San Diego being “taken out,” called it dangerous, and asked where Congress was. The White House said Trump was describing a nuclear threat the Iran war was meant to stop, not inviting an attack on the cities.
“An American president is talking about Los Angeles and San Diego being ‘taken out.’ Where the hell is Congress? This is dangerous. The time to stand up is NOW,” Newsom wrote Tuesday. A video with that statement went further.
“The President of the United States, the same one who sent in the National Guard into Los Angeles, sent 700 active duty Marines to the second-largest city in the United States of America, just invited Iran to take out Los Angeles and San Diego,” he said in the video. He said “over 130,000 active duty personnel are stationed” in the two places. Those troop figures are his. He called the remarks “madness,” “dangerous,” and “deranged.”
He named the officials he wanted to hear from. “Where the hell are you, Speaker Johnson, Marco Rubio, the great JD Vance? Where is your outrage? Find a backbone. Do your damn job.” He said that in their absence Californians would “stand up this November” and “put an end to the presidency of Donald Trump as we know it.” No statement from Johnson, Rubio, or Vance on the rally remarks was posted on their official accounts in a review of those records.
Trump made the remarks Monday at a campaign rally in Grand Island, Nebraska. He said: “It’s a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe. 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, and it’s going to be over with very soon.” He said the higher prices were “just artificial” and “a little bit high,” and that the war was “essentially almost over with” but would “end very soon, and it’s going to end one way or the other.”
The White House rejected Newsom’s reading. Communications director Steven Cheung wrote that Trump “was clearly stating U.S. cities would have been threatened if a nuclear Iran hadn’t been stopped,” and that “Iran has no nuclear, no navy, no air force, and no money.” The rapid-response account wrote that he was saying the United States is fighting to stop Iran from having “the ability to take out LA and San Diego with a nuclear weapon.”
Both cities host major Navy installations. Naval Base San Diego, which the Navy calls its premier Pacific Fleet surface installation, supports dozens of homeported ships and more than 150 tenant commands. Naval Base Coronado includes Naval Amphibious Base Coronado and supports aircraft carriers, helicopter squadrons, and SEAL teams. Those pages do not give the 130,000 figure Newsom used.
Newsom had already rejected the remarks, writing that Trump was “saying our foreign enemies should ‘take out’ Los Angeles and San Diego” and calling him “deranged and dangerous.” On the official governor’s account he later called the remarks “dangerous — if not treasonous” and said he was directing the State Threat Assessment Center to monitor for any reading of them as an invitation to target the state.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass wrote that Trump “suggested that a foreign government attack Los Angeles” and that the statements were “dangerous and could potentially compromise our safety.” Senator Alex Padilla answered the White House defense with “Do they think we’re stupid?” Newsom’s video is the one that puts the question to Congress by name.
In a July 30 Statement of Administration Policy, the White House said the president ordered a ceasefire on April 7, that the United States and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding on June 17, and that Iran attacked neutral-flagged commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz on July 6 and 7. It said U.S. forces began strikes inside Iran on July 7. That document does not mention Los Angeles, San Diego, or a congressional response.