LAT (“Trump suggests letting Iran ‘take out’ Los Angeles and San Diego at campaign rally“):
President Trump, speaking at a campaign rally Monday, suggested Iran could “take out” Los Angeles and San Diego — a comment that was possibly in jest but brought a quick reaction from leaders in California.
Trump said he wanted to “see a tremendous victory” in the November election, “’cause it verifies all the things we did. 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,” he continued. “They can take out a city, let ’em take out Los Angeles, let ’em take out San Diego. This is a very small price to pay.”
The crowd cheered.
[…]
Trump made the remarks during a rambling speech in which he said gas prices would be lower soon, touted his ouster of Venezuela’s dictator and made attacks on news outlets.
He was in Grand Island, Neb., encouraging residents of the deep-red state to vote as if he were on the ballot.
Trump is famously jocular and free-wheeling in his stump speeches. I’ve seen various clips of the “They can take out a city, let ’em take out Los Angeles, let ’em take out San Diego. This is a very small price to pay” sequence, such as this one from CNN. He doesn’t seem to be joking. He’s not smiling.
Thankfully, Iran does not yet have nuclear weapons, let alone the capacity to “take out” a major city on the West Coast. But, for the record, the deaths of 4 million Los Angelenos would be a very high price, indeed, to stop Iran from obtaining the ability to do that.
