Trump says Iran could 'take out' Los Angeles and San Diego. California's leaders call it a threat; his team says it was a warning
Speaking at a Monday-night rally in Grand Island, Nebraska, President Trump defended higher gas prices tied to the Iran war as 'a small price to pay' for security and then said Iran 'can take out a city,' naming Los Angeles and San Diego. The crowd applauded. On Tuesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote that Trump was now saying 'our foreign enemies should take out' the two cities and called him 'deranged and dangerous'; Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called the remarks dangerous; San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria wrote that the city is 'not expendable.' Republican congressional candidate Jim Desmond also distanced himself. Trump's Rapid Response account replied 'No, he didn't, you buffoons,' saying the remarks were a warning about the threat a nuclear-armed Iran would pose; Trump had not mentioned nuclear weapons. Later Tuesday Trump traveled to Sparrows Point in Baltimore County, Maryland, where Anduril announced a $3.7 billion investment in a shipyard called Arsenal-2 at Tradepoint Atlantic to build components and, eventually, larger sections of Virginia-class submarines; the Navy awarded Anduril a contract worth up to $2.9 billion, with payments tied to production. Officials put the total at $6.6 billion and about 3,100 jobs. Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat and frequent Trump critic, called it the state's largest private investment in more than a decade.
Four weeks before the midterms, the two halves of the day show the campaign's two registers: the rally, where the war is defended in blunt terms, and the official event, where it is industrial jobs and a Democratic governor on stage. California's House races are among the closest in the country, which is why even a Republican candidate there moved away from the remark within hours.
If you live in Southern California, nothing about your security has changed; no agency has described a specific threat. If you live near Baltimore, the shipyard is real money and real jobs, but the full submarine sections are a goal for the next decade, not next year.
The president was making a point about the stakes of a nuclear Iran, clumsily. His opponents are treating a rally riff as policy while ignoring the $6.6 billion he brought to a blue state the same day.
A president musing to applause about an enemy destroying two American cities is not a riff. No amount of shipyard ribbon-cutting changes what he said, or the fact that he did not mention nuclear weapons until his staff did.
Watch the California House polls next week, not the cable reaction. The remark matters politically only if it moves voters in the half-dozen close districts around Los Angeles and San Diego, and Desmond's quick distance says Republicans there think it might.
DailyDrop U.S. No. 2 · October 6, 2026