The White House clarified Donald Trump’s comments at a Monday night rally, explaining that the president was not insinuating that he wanted Iran to attack U.S. cities but instead wants to prevent Tehran from having that capability.<\/p>\n
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said on social media Tuesday that the president’s comments have been misunderstood and misrepresented in a \u201cmedia freakout\u201d that is \u201cnot rooted in reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump was discussing the Iran war and the resulting high gas prices that have become a midterm liability for Republicans during his remarks in Nebraska when he mentioned the possibility of an Iranian attack on U.S. soil.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe,\u201d he said of the war and its economic fallout. \u201cThey 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
The commentary, including Trump’s casual mention of the two California cities, was delivered in the familiar meandering style that he uses at campaign rallies, when he speaks for extended periods \u2014 often an hour or more \u2014 and is only occasionally following prepared remarks on a teleprompter.<\/p>\n
Critics, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, seized on his statements. The governor, a Democrat who could run for president in 2028, called Trump \u201cderanged and dangerous\u201d for, in Newsom’s framing, \u201csaying our foreign enemies should \u2018take out\u2019 Los Angeles and San Diego.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cheung, in his response Tuesday, said it was obvious that Trump was not calling for such an attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe media freakout over President Trump\u2019s comments is not rooted in reality,\u201d he said. \u201cHe was clearly stating U.S. cities would have been threatened if a nuclear Iran hadn\u2019t been stopped. America is safer because of the President.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cheung added that Iran \u201chas no nuclear, no navy, no air force, and no money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, at least one Republican politician shared Newsom\u2019s interpretation.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a Navy veteran, I served to protect Americans, not write off American cities as an acceptable price of war,\u201d Jim Desmond, the Republican congressional nominee in a metro San Diego district, wrote on social media, adding that \u201cno American family should ever be treated as collateral damage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump has often criticized U.S. cities as he campaigns, especially the largest areas that lean heavily Democratic. At a recent North Carolina rally, he described the state’s cities as \u201cblood-soaked killing fields.\u201d North Carolina’s violent crime rate ranks in the middle third of states, according to FBI statistics.<\/p>\n
Iran has said that it\u2019s not pursuing nuclear weapons, but has enriched uranium to near-weapons-grade levels that have no civilian purpose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The White House clarified Donald Trump’s comments at a Monday night rally, explaining that the president was not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3267,145,5602,31231,114341,9922,23681,59373,86083,98852,59371,59372,61262,82,84,83,43571,125825,156774],"class_list":["post-458219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-california","tag-donald-trump","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-iran","tag-jim-desmond","tag-los-angeles","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","tag-product-30031-ap-california-state-news-no-weather","tag-product-30073-ap-nebraska-state-news-no-weather","tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","tag-product-31998-ap-online-national-news","tag-product-46986-ap-online-top-stories","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-san-diego","tag-steven-cheung","tag-trump-take-out-los-angeles-san-diego"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}