Elected officials across San Diego and California reacted bitterly to President Donald Trump’s off-the-cuff comment late Monday that Iran could “take out” San Diego and its larger neighbor to the north, Los Angeles. The White House, meanwhile, attempted to reframe the statements.

Trump made the comments at a political rally in Nebraska, in a rambling discussion of the surging price of gasoline since he launched the war in Iran more than seven months ago.

Trump said: “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. This is a very small price to pay and it’s going to be over very soon.”

The comments did not go over well on the West Coast. From the San Diego mayor to the California Governor, many Democrats and at least one Republican candidate for Congress were aghast that a sitting U.S. President would suggest that a foreign enemy attack a major city.

“We can disagree with each other, but at the end of the day, a President’s first duty is to bring Americans together and to protect every one of us,” said Terra Lawson-Remer, who chairs the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.

“When the commander in chief talks about San Diego being ‘taken out’ by other countries with whom we’re at war, he is not fit to lead,” she said. “Trump is a traitor to our security, to our values and to our country.”

A White House official on Tuesday sought to blame news organizations for misinterpreting those elements of the speech.

“The media freakout over President Trump’s comments is not rooted in reality,” Communications Director Steven Cheung wrote on the social media platform X.

“He was clearly stating U.S. cities would have been threatened if a nuclear Iran hadn’t been stopped,” Cheung added. “America is safer because of the President. Iran has no nuclear, no navy, no air force, and no money.”

Lawson-Remer’s board colleague and congressional candidate, Supervisor Jim Desmond, was one of the few Republicans to criticize Trump’s comments.

“As a Navy veteran, I served to protect Americans, not write off American cities as an acceptable price of war,” Desmond wrote on social media. “No American family should ever be treated as collateral damage.”

San Diego Councilmember Marni von Wilpert, who is challenging Desmond for the congressional seat being vacated by Issa, also was quick to criticize the President – and her rival’s early support for the war in Iran.

“Donald Trump just told the country that San Diego is a small price to pay for his war, and Jim Desmond has cheered that war on from the start,” she said. “Our families are paying more than $6 a gallon, our sailors on the USS Lincoln are still waiting to come home and Desmond’s answer has been ‘no pain, no gain’.”

Rep. Darrell Issa, who holds the 48th District seat Desmond is seeking, declined to comment on Trump’s comments. Instead, his press aide issued a statement blaming Trump’s predecessors.

“Where the Obama and Biden Administrations appeased Tehran, paid them billions in bribes and put them on a glide path to having nuclear weapons, President Trump has taken historic and concrete action to eliminate the nuclear threat,” the statement said.

Outside the San Diego Unified School District headquarters in University Heights, Superintendent Fabiola Bagula joined school board trustees and others at a Tuesday afternoon press conference beneath the flagpole to chastise the President.

“As a school district, his reckless commentary leaves students wondering how their families and homes could be affected,” the district said in its announcement. “The president’s words dismiss the military families who call San Diego home and send their students to San Diego Unified schools.”

More than 7,000 students are connected to the military, the district said.

San Diego County is home to hundreds of thousands of active and retired U.S. service members. Additionally, it is the primary address for hundreds of thousands of registered Republicans and other people who voted for Trump.

The region also hosts major military bases, including the U.S. Naval Air Station North Island, U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton and Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, home to the “Fightertown USA” flight school of “Top Gun” fame.

In March, a memo sent out by the FBI to some police agencies in California warned about Iran allegedly aspiring at one point to conduct a surprise attack using drones from an offshore boat.

Mayor Todd Gloria said San Diegans deserve a President who values their lives, honors the service and sacrifice of military families and takes his presidential responsibilities seriously.

“San Diego serves America,” the mayor said in a statement. “We are an anchor of our nation’s security in the Pacific and home to one of the largest concentrations of military assets in the world.

“A President does not get to decide which American communities are worth protecting,” Gloria said. “His duty is to all of us.”

Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-San Diego, blamed Trump for sending her constituents into a panic with his dangerous comments.

“It’s unbelievably distressing that President Trump is the cause of this stress when he’s supposed to protect and reassure our country,” she said. “His comments are inexcusable. They don’t need more context and we don’t need thicker skin to understand them.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom also weighed in, noting that Trump already has targeted California cities in the first months of his second term.

“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,” Newsom wrote on social media. "He is deranged and dangerous."

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