(Dobbs) “It sounded like an invitation to attack two U.S. cities.”

Donald Trump doesn’t deserve the benefit of the doubt.

Oct 7

Before getting into today’s topic, please spend a sympathetic moment remembering all the innocent victims in Israel of the massacre on October 7th, three years ago today, and all the innocent victims in Gaza of the war that followed.

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Some stories don’t get the attention they deserve. Like this one, from the lips of Donald Trump:

“Let ‘em take out Los Angeles. Let ‘em take out San Diego.”

He’s talking about Iran.

It’s not this week’s biggest story— that honor might go to the completion of the merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, or the U.S. trade deficit rising toward a record, or the strikes paralyzing France, or, the anniversary of the Hamas attack.

But it’s (another) ugly example of just how sick the president of the United States is. How sick, how reckless, how callous, how deranged he is. But we’ll just stick with sick.

Speaking Monday night at a political rally in Grand Island, Nebraska, 150 miles west of Omaha, he was working to convince the convincible crowd that his war with Iran is existentially critical for the United States. “It’s a small price to pay,” he said as he has many times before, “for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe.”

Then he launched his demented line: “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.”

As Axios put it, “It sounded like an invitation to attack two U.S. cities.” According to the Los Angeles Times, the adoring crowd cheered.

They can afford to. If Iran ever does have the capability to launch a nuclear attack on America, it won’t be centered on Grand Island, Nebraska. It will target our nation’s most populated cities. Do you know how many people live in greater Los Angeles? Almost 13 million. And greater San Diego? Another 3.3 million.

To hear our sick president describe it, that would be “a very small price to pay.” Both cities are dominated by Democrats.

Predictably and appropriately, Californians are outraged. Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass: “The role of a president is to protect the country, not to actively threaten it and encourage attacks on American lives.”

San Diego mayor Todd Garcia: “San Diego is not expendable, and our people are not a punchline.”

Even a Republican congressional candidate named Jim Desmond, a San Diego supervisor who is running with Trump’s endorsement, felt the president was way out of line: “As a Navy veteran, I served to protect Americans, not write off American cities as an acceptable price of war.”

But Governor Gavin Newsom, who has outspokenly trolled Trump over the past year, said it best: “He is deranged and dangerous.”

As we have come to expect, Trump’s “Rapid Response 47” account on X tried to put lipstick on a pig, denying that the president said Iran should consider “taking out” two American cities: “No he didn’t, you buffoons. He was saying the U.S. is fighting to STOP Iran from having the ability to take out LA and San Diego with a nuclear weapon — which they would if they had the chance.” White House communications director Stephen Cheung called the whole thing a “media freakout” and wrote, also on X, “He was clearly stating U.S. cities would have been threatened if a nuclear Iran hadn’t been stopped. America is safer because of the President. Iran has no nuclear, no navy, no air force, and no money.”

Sorry Stephen, but for two reasons, that pig doesn’t fly. First, because if “Iran has no nuclear, no navy, no air force, and no money,” what are we even worried about? And second, if Trump was “clearly stating U.S. cities would have been threatened,” he’d have said something like, “They could take out a city if a nuclear Iran hadn’t been stopped. They could take out Los Angeles, they could take out San Diego” But he didn’t. He said, “Let ’em take out Los Angeles, let ’em take out San Diego.”

Donald Trump doesn’t deserve the benefit of the doubt.

[Salon] “It sounded like an invitation to attack two U.S. cities.”

(Dobbs) “It sounded like an invitation to attack two U.S. cities.”

Donald Trump doesn’t deserve the benefit of the doubt.