GRAND ISLAND, Oct 6, 2026 — President Donald Trump told a rally crowd that Iran could “take out” Los Angeles or San Diego and called that “a very small price to pay,” drawing a sharp rebuke from California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who said an American president was talking about two major cities being destroyed and asked where Congress was.
Trump made the remarks Monday night at the Pinnacle Bank Expo Center during a campaign event for Sen. Pete Ricketts and other Republicans ahead of the November midterms. He was discussing higher fuel and fertilizer costs tied to the war with Iran, now in its eighth month.
“And again, remember, with the war, it’s just artificial, it’s a little bit high, it’s a small price to pay,” Trump said. “It’s a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, for keeping our country safe. They could 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.”
The crowd cheered. Earlier in the speech, Trump said the United States was “kicking Iran’s ass,” predicted the war would end soon and prices would fall, and framed the conflict as preventing a worse threat from a nuclear-armed Iran.
Newsom posted a video of the remarks Tuesday on X. “An American president is talking about Los Angeles and San Diego being ‘taken out,’” he wrote. “Where the hell is Congress? This is dangerous. The time to stand up is NOW.”
In other statements, Newsom called Trump “deranged and dangerous” and linked the comments to the earlier deployment of National Guard troops and Marines in 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,” he wrote. He also said he had directed the State Threat Assessment Center to monitor whether foreign actors might treat the remarks as an invitation to target the state, and described the comments as “dangerous — if not treasonous.”
The White House said the line was taken out of context. Administration officials said Trump was arguing that elevated wartime prices were minor next to the danger of an Iran able to strike American cities, and that his policy was meant to stop that outcome. Supporters online called the criticism a distortion of a comment about gas prices.
Critics, including some Republicans, said the phrasing invited or minimized an attack on U.S. cities. San Diego is home to a major naval presence. Democrats treated the clip as fresh evidence that the president was reckless with California; Republicans said opponents had seized on a half-sentence to manufacture a scandal weeks before the election.
Trump has repeatedly described higher pump prices as a temporary cost of the war and has said the fighting would end soon. No lasting ceasefire has been announced.
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