Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said President Donald Trump had gone “beyond the pale” after remarks at a Monday rally in Grand Island, Nebraska, in which he said Iran could “take out” Los Angeles and San Diego. The White House said he was describing a threat a nuclear-armed Iran would have posed, not inviting an attack.
“The words of an American President weigh a ton. He must not be frivolous with the weight of his office,” Pelosi, a California Democrat who represents the state’s 11th District, wrote Tuesday in a post on X. “Donald Trump has gone beyond the pale saying Iran can ‘take out’ Los Angeles and San Diego.”
“How could he say the slaughter of Americans is a ‘small price to pay’?” she wrote. “The American people expect much more of a U.S. President.” Pelosi applied the phrase “small price to pay” to the killing of Americans. In the rally remarks, Trump used that phrase while discussing prices he tied to the war, and then again immediately after naming the two cities.
Speaking about the war and those prices, Trump 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.” He also said Iran would not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.
White House communications director Steven Cheung rejected the critics’ reading. “The media freakout over President Trump’s comments is not rooted in reality,” he wrote in a post 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.”
The White House rapid-response account, replying to a Los Angeles Times headline, wrote: “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,” in a post the same day.
The same day as the rally, Trump signed an executive order on diesel costs, the White House said in an Oct. 5 fact sheet. The order temporarily allows off-road dyed diesel for highway use and defers the federal excise tax. The fact sheet attributed tight diesel supply to the Russia-Ukraine war and refining capacity. It did not mention Iran.
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 against missile sites, air defenses, maritime assets and command facilities, and described those operations as separate from earlier ones.
Both cities named in the rally remarks host major military installations. Naval Base San Diego, which the Navy calls its premier Pacific Fleet surface installation, supports 54 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.
California Governor Gavin Newsom wrote that Trump was “saying our foreign enemies should ‘take out’ Los Angeles and San Diego” and called him “deranged and dangerous.” On the official governor’s account, he later called the remarks “dangerous — if not treasonous,” said they put “a target on two of our biggest cities and one of America’s largest naval hubs,” and said he was directing the State Threat Assessment Center to monitor for any reading of the remarks 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,” in a post on X. “The role of a president is to protect the country, not to actively threaten it and encourage attacks on American lives,” she wrote.