{"id":872997,"date":"2026-10-06T17:10:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T17:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/872997\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T17:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T17:10:08","slug":"trumps-suggestion-that-iran-could-take-out-la-or-san-diego-draws-republican-rebuke-donald-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/872997\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s suggestion that Iran could \u2018take out\u2019 LA or San Diego draws Republican rebuke | Donald Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Republican candidate in San Diego has criticized Donald Trump<\/a> after the US president suggested Iran could \u201ctake out\u201d the city or Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Trump has faced a chorus of condemnation from Democratic leaders in California after his comments at a rally in Nebraska on Monday night. Republicans<\/a> have largely remained silent.<\/p>\n

But Republican Jim Desmond, who is standing in a competitive San Diego based seat in the House of Representatives, pushed back.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmerica must stand up to Iran<\/a> and defend our interests, but the first responsibility of our Commander in Chief is to protect the American people and our homeland,\u201d Desmond, the former mayor of San Marcos, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

He joined a string of prominent Democrats who called out the comments. Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, said: \u201cThe nuclear annihilation of an American city is no laughing matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Desmond is set to face Marni Von Wilpert, a lawyer and member of San Diego\u2019s city council, for the state\u2019s 48th congressional district \u2013 which was redrawn in response to Proposition 50.<\/p>\n

Desmond, also a navy veteran, said that he \u201cserved to protect Americans, not write off American cities as an acceptable price of war\u201d.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo American city is expendable, and no American family should ever be treated as collateral damage,\u201d Desmond added.<\/p>\n

At his rally in Nebraska, Trump claimed that high prices due to the war with Iran<\/a> are a \u201csmall price to pay for keeping the world safe \u2013 keeping our country safe\u201d. He went on: \u201cThey can take out a city. Let them take out Los Angeles<\/a>. Let them take out San Diego.\u201d The crowd clapped.<\/p>\n

Within hours there was criticism from the California<\/a> governor, Gavin Newsom, and others. On Tuesday the backlash continued.<\/p>\n

Terra Lawson-Remer, chair of the San Diego board of supervisors, said in a statement<\/a>: \u201cMy grandfather was a Marine. He died fighting for our country \u2026 When 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. Trump is a traitor to our security, to our values, and to our Country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tom Cochran, head of the United States Conference of Mayors, argued that Trump had \u201ccrossed a line that no president should ever approach\u201d. He added: \u201cNo American President should ever describe an attack on an American city by a hostile foreign power as acceptable. Not at a rally, not as a joke, not under any circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Trump supporters dismissed the uproar. Blake Marnell, who wears a brick-patterned suit to resemble Trump\u2019s border wall, lives in San Diego and was at the rally in Nebraska. He said by phone on Tuesday: \u201cI 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\u2019s appropriate for a rally in which the president is addressing his base.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marnell added: \u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House also insisted that Trump was being willfully misinterpreted.<\/p>\n

Steven Cheung, its director of communications, posted on X<\/a>: \u201cThe media freakout over President Trump\u2019s comments is not rooted in reality. He 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. Iran has no nuclear, no navy, no air force, and no money.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House\u2019s \u201cRapid Response 47\u201d account called<\/a> the Los Angeles Times newspaper \u201cbuffoons\u201d and insisted that Trump was saying the US is \u201cfighting to STOP Iran from having the ability to take out LA and San Diego with a nuclear weapon \u2013 which they would if they had the chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article was amended on 6 October 2026. Trump suggested that Iran could \u201ctake out\u201d the two cities, but did not suggest that it do so, as the original headline indicated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Republican candidate in San Diego has criticized Donald Trump after the US president suggested Iran could \u201ctake…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":872998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-872997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=872997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/872998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}