President Donald Trump horrified countless onlookers Monday night after openly encouraging Iran to “take out” two major U.S. cities, adding that doing so would be a “very small price to pay” for “keeping the world safe.”
“No words,” wrote former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance in a social media post on X, reacting to a viral clip of Trump’s remarks.
Speaking during his rally at Pinnacle Bank Expo Center in Grand Island, Nebraska, Trump admitted that U.S. prices were “a little bit high” amid his war against Iran, but insisted that the deeply unpopular conflict would be “over with very soon.”
“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 gonna be over with very soon,” Trump said, eliciting cheers from attendees.
“It’s essentially almost over with, and they might keep going a little long. They always say they have a big threshold for pain… they need it, let me tell you! But it’s gonna end very soon, and it’ll end one way or the other.”
With nearly 3.9 million residents, Los Angeles is the second-most populous city in the United States, and Los Angeles County, with its close to 9.7 million residents, is the single-most populous county in the nation. San Diego has around 1.4 million residents, and San Diego County has nearly 3.3 million, with the region also home to the nation’s “largest military community” with around 110,000 active-duty service members.
“A sitting President even JOKING about the deaths of over 5 million of his own citizens, while an audience seal claps? We've gone way beyond insanity,” wrote comedian and radio host Adam Buckley.
MS NOW’s Lawrence O’Donnell called Trump “insane,” former UFC fighter Gray Maynard called the president a “terrorist,” and multiple elected officials from Southern California expressed their outrage.
“The President of the United States suggested that a foreign government attack Los Angeles. His statements against our city are dangerous and could potentially compromise our safety,” wrote Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. “The role of a president is to protect the country, not to actively threaten it and encourage attacks on American lives.”
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria told Trump to “keep [his] city out of [his] reckless war talk,” insisting that San Diego was “never a ‘small price to pay,’” and Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom vowed to continue to remind Americans that the president’s violent rhetoric was “not normal.”
“Let’s be clear: The President is advocating for an attack on 10+ million U.S. residents in two of America’s largest cities,” Newsom wrote. “This is not normal. None of this is. And we will continue to remind folks of that every day.”