Critics took issue with President Donald Trump’s comments at an Oct. 5 Nebraska campaign rally, saying Trump had called for an attack on two American cities.
This story was originally published on PolitiFact.com.
“Trump says Iran bombing Los Angeles, San Diego would be a ‘very small price to pay,’” read the headline on a TikTok video by the Courier Newsroom, a left-leaning outlet. Others on TikTok shared that headline.
On MS Now’s “Morning Joe,” co-host Mika Brzezinski shared the clip of Trump’s speech and said the president was “casually calling for Iran to attack two of the most populous cities in the United States.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote on X, “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,” calling Trump “deranged and dangerous.”
The White House said Democrats misrepresented Trump’s comments.
Steven Cheung, White House communications director, reshared an X post of Trump’s comments by Headquarters, a progressive media outlet started by former Vice President Kamala Harris, and wrote, “He was clearly stating U.S. cities would have been threatened if a nuclear Iran hadn’t been stopped.”
PolitiFact contacted the White House press office for additional comment and a spokesperson referred us to Cheung’s X post. The Rapid Response 47 X account, an official White House account, also disputed a Los Angeles Times headline about Trump’s comments.
Earlier in his somewhat meandering speech, Trump cited Iran’s nuclear ambitions as a reason for the war, and said the war’s end would bring down the higher gasoline prices that have resulted from it.
“You know, by the way, we’re kicking Iran’s ass. You do know that, right? And that’ll end soon. It’s gonna end one way or the other. It’s gonna end very soon and your prices are gonna come tumbling. All your prices have been tumbling down. In fact, oil is less than it was under Biden, just so you understand. And we are saving this country from a problem, and the Middle East and Israel and everybody. We’re saving the world from what could be one of the worst tragedies ever.”
Trump then touched on a number of topics over the next seven minutes: He boasted about the military’s work in Iran, complained about the news media, joked about running for a third term and bragged about a long line to get into the rally. Then he stressed the importance of Republicans winning the midterm elections. “You wanna see a tremendous victory, because it verifies all the things we did,” he said.
Here’s the video and a transcript of Trump’s comments that followed, including his mention of the two California cities:
WATCH: President Donald Trump delivers remarks at Nebraska rallyWatch on
“And again, remember with the war, it’s just artificial. It’s a little bit high. It’s a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe. They can take out a city. Let them take, let it, let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego. That’s, this is a very small price to pay, and it’s gonna be over very soon. It’s essentially almost over with.
“And they might keep going a little long, you know? They always say they have a big threshold for pain. They need it, let me tell you. They need it. But it’s gonna end very soon, and it’ll end one way or the other, and your gas and your gasoline and all of the things. And don’t forget, we also took on a country known as Venezuela. They never talk about that. They never talk about Venezuela. And we’re taking in hundreds of millions of barrels of oil every week.”
This story was originally published on PolitiFact.com.
It is republished here as part of a reporting and fact-checking partnership between PolitiFact and Hearst Television.