Republican rebukes Trump for suggesting Iran could ‘take out’ LA or San Diego

1:07Trump suggests Iran could ‘take out’ American cities at rally – videoCalifornia to ‘actively monitor’ for possible threats after Trump said Iran could ‘take out’ LA and San DiegoGavin Newsom said state’s threat-assessment center would be on heightened alert after president’s remarks

California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, on Tuesday directed the state’s emergency preparedness center to “actively monitor” possible threats to the state after Donald Trump suggested Iran could “take out” the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego.

Trump has faced a chorus of condemnation from Democratic leaders in California after his comments at a rally in Nebraska on Monday night, which the White House has suggested were being taken out of context.

At the president’s rally in Grand Island, Nebraska, Trump claimed that high prices due to the war with Iran are a “small price to pay for keeping the world safe – keeping our country safe”. He went on: “They can take out a city. Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego.” The crowd applauded the line.

“Donald Trump’s remarks were dangerous – if not treasonous – putting a target on two of our biggest cities and one of America’s largest naval hubs,” Newsom said in a post on X, adding that the state’s threat-assessment center would be on heightened alert “in the event that foreign actors interpret the President’s remarks as an invitation to target California”.

From the governor’s press office account, he taunted California Republicans for their “radio silence” in response the president’s bombastic remark.

But one Republican House candidate, Jim Desmond, who is running in a competitive San Diego-based seat, pushed back.

“America must stand up to Iran and defend our interests, but the first responsibility of our commander in chief is to protect the American people and our homeland,” Desmond, a former mayor of San Marcos, said in a statement.

Read moreIt is a notable rebuke from a Republican in a closely watched contest that could help the party retain their razor-thin majority in the lower chamber.

Desmond is set to face Marni Von Wilpert, a lawyer and member of San Diego’s city council, for the state’s 48th congressional district – which was redrawn in response to Proposition 50.

Desmond, also a navy veteran, said that he “served to protect Americans, not write off American cities as an acceptable price of war”.

“No American city is expendable, and no American family should ever be treated as collateral damage,” he added.

He joined a string of prominent Democrats who called out the comments. Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, said: “The nuclear annihilation of an American city is no laughing matter.”

Xavier Becerra, the Democratic nominee for governor vying to succeed Newsom, said he wasn’t surprised by the president’s comments.

“Donald Trump is a known commodity – you know how he acts, you know how he behaves,” Becerra told reporters at a campaign event in Los Angeles on Tuesday. But he took a jab at Republicans who “profess that they should be the leaders of our state” but aren’t willing to “stand up to Donald Trump”.

Becerra’s Republican rival, Steve Hilton, did not return a request for comment.

But many Trump supporters dismissed the uproar. Blake Marnell, who wears a brick-patterned suit to resemble Trump’s border wall, lives in San Diego and was at the rally in Nebraska. He said by phone on Tuesday: “I defend his comments absolutely. It is not inappropriate to mention something like that now because you have to take it in the context in which it is spoken. If you look at that context, it’s appropriate for a rally in which the president is addressing his base.”

Read moreMarnell added: “The Democrats have a long and storied history of flying off the handle at any remark that President Trump makes, and this is just another chapter in that history, and I ascribe no significance to it, and in two days no one will be talking about it.”

Darrell Issa, a Republican congressman who represents parts of southern California, did not directly respond to an inquiry about Trump’s remarks, but defended the president in a statement, saying he had “taken historic and concrete action to eliminate the nuclear threat, protect every inch of our homeland, and ensure Iran never threatens America or her allies ever again”.

Paula Whitsell, chair of the Republican party of San Diego county, criticized what she called the “biased media” for taking the president’s remarks “completely out of context”.

“No one should believe for a single moment that he wants ANY American city attacked,” Whitsell said in a statement. “The president was simply speaking to his belief that confronting Iran is worth it to eliminate the threat to our country and named two cities as an example of what could happen if we don’t act, not as an invitation for them to be attacked.”

The White House also insisted that Trump was being willfully misinterpreted.

Steven Cheung, its director of communications, posted on X: “The media freakout over President Trump’s comments is not rooted in reality. 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’s “Rapid Response 47” account called the Los Angeles Times newspaper “buffoons” and insisted that Trump was saying the US 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.”