President Donald Trump has denied reports that he suggested Iran should bomb San Diego and Los Angeles, stating his remarks were intended as a comparison between temporary gasoline price increases and the potential consequences of an Iranian nuclear program.
In a post, Trump accused news outlets of misrepresenting his remarks at an October 5 rally in Grand Island, Nebraska. According to a transcript published by PolitiFact, Trump told the crowd: “We’re saving the world from what could be one of the worst tragedies ever.” He later described the current gas price spike as “artificial” and “a little bit high,” emphasizing that it was a small cost compared to the potential devastation of nuclear attacks on U.S. cities.
Trump specifically mentioned Los Angeles and San Diego in his comparison but clarified that he was not calling for Iran to attack American cities. In a Truth Social post, Trump wrote: “All I was doing was making a comparison between paying a little more, for a short time, for Gasoline, versus the bombing of our Major Cities.”
The Los Angeles Times reported that Trump suggested letting Iran “take out” San Diego and Los Angeles. MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski stated that Trump was “casually calling for Iran to attack two of the most populous cities in the United States.” California Governor Gavin Newsom labeled Trump “deranged and dangerous,” insisting he wanted “our foreign enemies” to destroy California cities.
The White House communications director Steven Cheung confirmed that Trump stated U.S. cities would have been threatened if Iran had not been stopped from acquiring nuclear weapons. The official Rapid Response 47 account dismissed the Los Angeles Times headline with: “No, he didn’t, you buffoons.”
PolitiFact chose to publish the full transcript under its “In Context” series rather than issue a fact-check ruling against Trump.
The press is banking on Americans being too busy or too incurious to check. That bet gets worse for them every single cycle.
