What Trump actually said about Los Angeles and San Diego: the full, uncut remarks

Gov. Gavin Newsom says President Donald Trump wants America's enemies to "take out" Los Angeles and San Diego. Xavier Becerra says the president called 13 million Californians "a small price to pay." Their posts spread fast this week.

The full, unedited recording of the speech tells a different story than the 10-second clip.

Where it happened

Trump spoke Monday, Oct. 5, at a midterm rally at the Pinnacle Bank Expo Center in Grand Island, Nebraska. The full speech is on video from Rural Radio Network and in a time-stamped transcript from Roll Call Factba.se. The passage in question runs from about 11:55 to 12:40 into the speech.

What came first

About eight minutes earlier, Trump set up the topic he kept coming back to: the war with Iran and what it is costing at the pump.

"We're saving the world from what could be one of the worst tragedies ever," he said. "We're not gonna let them have it and they won't have. That's, that's decided. They will not have a nuclear weapon."

A minute later: "We have to stop them from having a nuclear weapon." He then talked about gas prices he had seen in Iowa, $1.95 and $1.85 a gallon, and promised prices would fall further once the war ends.

The full passage, word for word

Here is the complete passage from the transcript, including the sentences the viral clips leave out. ("Word" in the transcript is how the transcriber heard "war.")

"And again, remember, with the word, 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 it, 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 gonna be over 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 gonna end very soon, and it'll end one way or the other, and your gas and your gasoline and all of the things."

What the context shows

The "small price to pay" in that passage is the temporary rise in fuel prices from the war, which Trump calls "artificial" and "a little bit high." He comes back to it at the end of the same passage: "your gas and your gasoline and all of the things." It is the same thing he was talking about minutes earlier, when he said prices "are gonna come tumbling" once the war is over.

"They can take out a city" follows directly from his earlier point: Iran must never get a nuclear weapon, because a nuclear Iran could destroy an American city. Read that way, Los Angeles and San Diego are the cities a nuclear Iran could hit, and a few months of higher gas prices are the cost of making sure it never happens.

The White House gave the same explanation. "He was clearly stating U.S. cities would have been threatened if a nuclear Iran hadn't been stopped," Communications Director Steven Cheung said. The administration's Rapid Response account on X put it more bluntly: Trump "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."

Nothing in the speech says Trump wants either city harmed. Anyone can check by watching the full recording.

What California Democrats said

Newsom, who has spent the year fighting the president over the National Guard deployment to Los Angeles, posted: "After sending the National Guard and Marines to occupy California, Donald Trump is now saying our foreign enemies should 'take out' Los Angeles and San Diego. He is deranged and dangerous."

Becerra, the former California attorney general and U.S. health secretary, posted: "Thirteen million Californians call LA and San Diego counties home. Their lives are not a 'small price to pay' or a punchline for Donald Trump."

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said, "San Diego is not collateral damage. We are not expendable." Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the president "suggested that a foreign government attack Los Angeles."

None of those statements quoted the sentence about gas prices that comes just before the line they objected to, or the president's earlier remarks about keeping a nuclear weapon out of Iran's hands.

Not everyone read it the White House's way

Trump's phrasing was clumsy, and the words "let them take out Los Angeles" are hard to hear for anyone who lives here. Some Republicans said so. County Supervisor Jim Desmond, a Republican, said he "vehemently" disagreed with the comments.

Still, there is a difference between saying a president chose his words badly and telling millions of Californians that he wants their cities destroyed. Newsom and Becerra said the second thing. The full recording does not back them up.

San Diego Newsline reviewed the complete transcript and the full video of the speech. Readers can do the same using the links below.