Donald Trump has faced a wave of criticism after footage emerged of him apparently suggesting that sacrificing Los Angeles or San Diego would be a small price to pay for ending the war in Iran. The two cities have a combined population of around 5.5 million.
The full transcript of his remarks, with context before and after, reads: "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 out Los Angeles, let them take out San Diego. And it's going to be over with very soon. Essentially it's almost over with."
Reaction from California officials
The comments have gone down very poorly indeed, particularly in California. LA Mayor Karen Bass said the comment was "an attempt to encourage attacks on American lives." Governor Gavin Newsom called the remarks "dangerous - if not treasonous."
The White House interpreted the comments differently. Communications chief Steven Chung branded it a "media freakout," saying Trump was "clearly stating US Cities would have been threatened if a nuclear Iran hadn't been stopped."
Context of Trump's rhetoric
While it is important to drill into what a politician actually means, the words they say are not irrelevant. During his first term, Trump said there were "very fine people on both sides" of the racist Charlottesville 'Unite the Right' March. He and his supporters argued he was not calling the Neo-Nazis responsible for the march 'very fine people,' but it was implicit in the words he used.
The Neo-Nazis themselves took it as a barely coded high five from the president of the United States. No other politician in the world gets taken "seriously but not literally." It is unreasonable to expect Americans to all possess a Donald Trump decoder ring, and the decoder rings are not sold in Iran either.
