Members of the Republican Party have joined Democrats in questioning comments made by US President Donald Trump about the California cities of Los Angeles and San Diego.
Much of the backlash came Tuesday, a day after Trump told a midterm rally in Nebraska that Americans should be willing to make sacrifices to achieve victory in the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.
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These sacrifices, he implies, could include the destruction of American cities in the event of an Iranian attack.
“It’s a small price to pay to keep the world and our country safe,” Trump said, apparently referring to the war’s repercussions, including rising fuel and fertilizer prices.
“They can take over a city. Let them take over Los Angeles. Let them take over San Diego. It’s a very small price to pay, and it will be over very soon.”
Trump has downplayed the impact of the war – now in its eighth month – despite polls that show the conflict is widely unpopular in the United States. He has also repeatedly promised that the war will end soon, although no lasting ceasefire has been reached so far.
The fallout from his remarks about Nebraska was swift. Gavin Newsom, an outspoken critic of Trump and California’s Democratic governor, said the president was “disturbed.”
“It’s not just madness. It’s dangerous,” Newsom said in a video on the social network X, in which he called on Congress to rein in Trump’s behavior.
Newsom, a possible 2028 presidential candidate, has repeatedly clashed with Trump.
Last year, the two men clashed over Trump’s decision to deploy federal troops to California, part of an effort to support a crackdown on illegal immigration in the Los Angeles area.
In December, a federal judge ruled the deployment illegal and ordered it stopped. Newsom, who opposed the deployment, cited that conflict in his remarks at Trump’s Nebraska rally.
“The president of the United States – the same one who sent the National Guard to Los Angeles and sent 700 active duty Marines to the second largest city in the United States of America – just called on Iran to eliminate Los Angeles and San Diego,” Newsom said.
He added that Trump’s remarks should convince those who “didn’t think the November election was important” to vote in the midterms.
Some members of Trump’s own party also expressed shock at his remarks.
Jim Desmond, a Republican running for the House of Representatives near San Diego, was among those who distanced themselves from Trump’s statement.
“I completely disagree with President Trump’s comments. America must stand up to Iran and defend its interests, but the first responsibility of our Commander in Chief is to protect the American people and our homeland,” Desmond wrote on X.
“No American city is unusable, and no American family should ever be considered collateral damage. »
U.S. Rep. Kevin Kiley, an independent who caucuses with Republicans and is running for office in Northern California, also called Trump’s comments “unhelpful.”
But the White House has dismissed criticism of the comments, calling them a “media panic” that “is not rooted in reality.”
“He clearly stated that American cities would have been at risk if nuclear Iran had not been stopped,” White House communications director Steven Cheung wrote on social media.
“America is safer because of the president. Iran has no nuclear weapons, no navy, no air force and no money.”
California has the largest population and largest economy of any state in the United States. Due to its population, it also has the largest number of seats in the House of Representatives, with 52.
The 435 seats in the House of Representatives will be up for election in November, as well as a third of the Senate. Also on the ballot are major state and local races.
With Republican control of Congress at stake, the results of the midterm elections are expected to weigh heavily on the final two years of Trump’s second term.
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