On October 5, 2026, President Donald Trump spoke at a midterm campaign rally in Grand Island, Nebraska, where he discussed the war with Iran and rising gas prices.
However, the rally quickly took a turn when he remarked on the fates of two of the largest cities in California: San Diego and Los Angeles.
HIs remarks suggesting Iran could be allowed to destroy two major American cities sparked fierce backlash over the casualness with which he discussed such catastrophic losses.
Specifically, Trump said:
“I want to see a tremendous victory. You want to see a tremendous victory, because 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.
They can take out a city. Let them take, let them take out Los Angeles; let them take out San Diego. That’s — this is a very small price to pay, and it’s going to be over with very soon. It’s essentially almost over with.
And they might keep going a little long. You know, they always say they have a big threshold for pain. They need it. Let me tell you, they need it. But it’s going to end very soon. And it’ll end one way or the other. And your gas and your gasoline and all of the things.
And don’t forget, we also took on a country known as Venezuela. They never talk about that. They never talk about Venezuela. And we’re taking in hundreds of millions of barrels of oil every week. We’re pouring oil. We’re pouring oil into this country like nobody’s ever seen before.”
With a surprising uproar of cheers emerging from the crowd gathered in Nebraska after declaring “Let them take out Los Angeles; let them take out San Diego,” both sides of the political spectrum were outraged from his callous words and proceeded to call him out. The following Wednesday, Trump defended his comments, saying he had “no choice” if the United States wanted to prevent Iran from continuing to develop nuclear weapons.
This type of rhetoric has been a recurring feature of Trump’s public statements. Whether it’s his infamous tweets on X or his public comments in speeches, his inflammatory language describing hypothetical mass annihilation as well as the administration attempting to cover these tracks, saying he was just “misunderstood” is not far from the norm.
However, what I want to discuss is how extreme partisan rhetoric and extravagant claims impacts the day-to-day lives of American people. More specifically, I want to examine the impact of Trump’s October 5 comments on the people who call Los Angeles and San Diego home.
Los Angeles and San Diego combined are home to over 10 million people. Both of these communities house richly diverse cultural backgrounds, generations of historical relevancy, and contribute over $1.56 trillion annually to the United States economy via their regional Gross Domestic Product. They quite literally lead the country in entertainment, economy, trade, aerospace, and numerous other professional services.
Not only this, but according to the 2025 Military Economic Impact Report from the San Diego Military Advisory Council and UC San Diego’s Rady School of Management, defense activities generate $61.3 billion, or 22.2% of San Diego County’s gross regional product, sustaining over 357,000 local jobs.
So why does this matter? This is a question that I have been asking myself over the past weeks. As a lifelong Los Angeles resident, we are not simply “a small price to pay.” This antagonistic language does not just deepen political divisions; it also dismisses the livelihoods of the people who live in these cities. It disregards decades of history, the cultures that have developed here, and the communities that make these places what they are.
This dismissal feels incredibly alienating, especially when the decisions being debated and the comments being thrown out without care have real, tangible impacts on millions of people.
Local perspectives are often lost in large scale partisan debates, even though the consequences of policy decisions are felt most directly by the individuals living within those communities. This to me is frustrating.
So, not just to the president, but to every leader meant to represent us: We are not pawns. We are not “a small price to pay,” and we are certainly not expendable.