Elected officials across San Diego and California reacted bitterly to President Donald Trump\u2019s off-the-cuff comment late Monday that Iran could \u201ctake out\u201d San Diego and its larger neighbor to the north, Los Angeles.\u00a0The White House, meanwhile, attempted to reframe the statements.<\/p>\n
Trump made the comments at a political rally in Nebraska, in a rambling discussion of the surging price of gasoline since he launched the war in Iran more than seven months ago.<\/p>\n
Trump said: \u201cIt\u2019s a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe. They can take out a city. Let \u2019em take out Los Angeles, let \u2019em take out San Diego. This is a very small price to pay and it\u2019s going to be over very soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
The comments did not go over well on the West Coast. From the San Diego mayor to the California Governor, many Democrats and at least one Republican candidate for Congress were aghast that a sitting U.S. President would suggest that a foreign enemy attack a major city.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can disagree with each other, but at the end of the day, a President\u2019s first duty is to bring Americans together and to protect every one of us,\u201d said Terra Lawson-Remer, who chairs the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the commander in chief talks about San Diego being \u2018taken out\u2019 by other countries with whom we\u2019re at war, he is not fit to lead,\u201d she said. \u201cTrump is a traitor to our security, to our values and to our country.\u201d<\/p>\n
A White House official on Tuesday sought to blame news organizations for misinterpreting those elements of the speech.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe media freakout over President Trump\u2019s comments is not rooted in reality,\u201d Communications Director Steven Cheung wrote on the social media platform X.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was clearly stating U.S. cities would have been threatened if a nuclear Iran hadn\u2019t been stopped,\u201d Cheung added. \u201cAmerica is safer because of the President. Iran has no nuclear, no navy, no air force, and no money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lawson-Remer\u2019s board colleague and congressional candidate, Supervisor Jim Desmond, was one of the few Republicans to criticize Trump\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a Navy veteran, I served to protect Americans, not write off American cities as an acceptable price of war,\u201d Desmond wrote on social media. \u201cNo American family should ever be treated as collateral damage.\u201d<\/p>\n
San Diego Councilmember Marni von Wilpert, who is challenging Desmond for the congressional seat being vacated by Issa, also was quick to criticize the President \u2013 and her rival\u2019s early support for the war in Iran.<\/p>\n
\u201cDonald Trump just told the country that San Diego is a small price to pay for his war, and Jim Desmond has cheered that war on from the start,\u201d she said. \u201cOur families are paying more than $6 a gallon, our sailors on the USS Lincoln are still waiting to come home, and Desmond\u2019s answer has been \u2018no pain, no gain\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rep. Darrell Issa, who holds the 48th District seat Desmond is seeking, declined to comment on Trump\u2019s comments. Instead, his press aide issued a statement blaming Trump\u2019s predecessors.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere the Obama and Biden Administrations appeased Tehran, paid them billions in bribes and put them on a glide path to having nuclear weapons, President Trump has taken historic and concrete action to eliminate the nuclear threat,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n
Outside the San Diego Unified School District headquarters in University Heights, Superintendent Fabiola Bagula joined school board trustees and others at a Tuesday afternoon press conference beneath the flagpole to chastise the President.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a school district, his reckless commentary leaves students wondering how their families and homes could be affected,\u201d the district said in its announcement. \u201cThe president\u2019s words dismiss the military families who call San Diego home and send their students to San Diego Unified schools.\u201d<\/p>\n
More than 7,000 students are connected to the military, the district said.<\/p>\n
San Diego County is home to hundreds of thousands of active and retired U.S. service members. Additionally, it is the primary address for hundreds of thousands of registered Republicans and other people who voted for Trump.<\/p>\n
The region also hosts major military bases, including the U.S. Naval Air Station North Island, U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton and Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, home to the \u201cFightertown USA\u201d flight school of \u201cTop Gun\u201d fame.<\/p>\n
In March, a memo sent out by the FBI to some police agencies in California warned about Iran allegedly aspiring at one point to conduct a surprise attack using drones from an offshore boat.<\/p>\n
Mayor Todd Gloria said San Diegans deserve a President who values their lives, honors the service and sacrifice of military families and takes his presidential responsibilities seriously.<\/p>\n
\u201cSan Diego serves America,\u201d the mayor said in a statement. \u201cWe are an anchor of our nation\u2019s security in the Pacific and home to one of the largest concentrations of military assets in the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cA President does not get to decide which American communities are worth protecting,\u201d Gloria said. \u201cHis duty is to all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-San Diego, blamed Trump for sending her constituents into a panic with his dangerous comments.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s unbelievably distressing that President Trump is the cause of this stress when he\u2019s supposed to protect and reassure our country,\u201d she said. \u201cHis comments are inexcusable. They don\u2019t need more context and we don\u2019t need thicker skin to understand them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gov. Gavin Newsom also weighed in, noting that Trump already has targeted California cities in the first months of his second term.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter sending the National Guard and Marines to occupy California, Donald Trump is now saying our foreign enemies should \u2018take out\u2019 Los Angeles and San Diego,\u201d Newsom wrote on social media. He is deranged and dangerous.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elected officials across San Diego and California reacted bitterly to President Donald Trump\u2019s off-the-cuff comment late Monday that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487623,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,100,13,1696],"class_list":["post-487622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}