TOI correspondent from Washington: MAGA boss Donald Trump has never been particularly sentimental about California, a state that has rejected him by 20 to 30 points in the last three presidential elections.
But suggesting that Iran could “take out” Los Angeles or San Diego — and calling their destruction “a very small price to pay” — carried the president’s long-running feud with the Golden State into distinctly darker territory.
Because the president’s trademark rambling leaves them explaining what he must have meant — while opponents quote what he actually said, his defenders have to routinely perform interpretive gymnastics worthy of a trapeze artist.
It’s a little bit high,” Trump said, apparently referring to prices. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the president’s job was to protect Americans, not encourage attacks on them. “With the war, it’s just artificial. Then came the sentence that jolted American politics: “It’s a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe. They can take out a city. Let ’em take out Los Angeles. Let ’em take out San Diego. The crowd, mostly Trump faithful, cheered. California Governor Gavin Newsom called Trump “deranged and dangerous. San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria snapped, “San Diego is not collateral damage. We are not expendable. This is where Trump’s unique oratorical skill, which some have compared to that of a third-grader, becomes politically hazardous.
At a rally in Grand Island, Nebraska, on Monday night, Trump was explaining away the economic pain caused by his war on Iran when his verbal GPS appeared to lose the signal.