White House defends Trump’s remarks about Iran and California cities
publishers 61articles 65first reported 6 Oct, 00:21 UTCdeveloping since 6 Oct · 11 editionstop 25 #4
President Donald Trump drew criticism after naming Los Angeles and San Diego while discussing the war with Iran and higher prices at a political rally in Nebraska on Monday.
“It’s a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe,” Trump said. “They can take out a city. Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego. This is a very small price to pay.” He also predicted that the conflict would end “very soon.”
California officials interpreted the remarks as accepting or encouraging attacks on the two cities. Gov. Gavin Newsom called Trump “deranged and dangerous.” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said a president’s role was to protect the country, “not to actively threaten it and encourage attacks on American lives.” San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said his city was “not collateral damage” or expendable. Jim Desmond, a Republican congressional candidate near San Diego, also said he “vehemently” disagreed with Trump’s comments.
The White House rejected that characterization Tuesday. Communications director Steven Cheung said Trump was arguing that U.S. cities would have faced danger if Iran had obtained a nuclear weapon. The White House Rapid Response account similarly said the United States was fighting to prevent Iran from gaining the ability to strike Los Angeles and San Diego.
Trump did not explicitly mention nuclear weapons in the quoted portion of his rally remarks, though he linked higher prices to what he described as the cost of keeping the country safe.
HOW THIS STORY WAS MADE
Written from 8 articles, 5 with the publisher's own text; 8 independent newsrooms once syndicated copies count as one; this version written 12 h after the record first saw the story; the editor kept it as written.
- Publishers
- 61
- Source articles
- 65
- Given to the writer
- 8, 5 with the article's own text
- Independent newsrooms
- 8
- This version written
- 12 h after the record first saw the story
- Second model (editor)
- kept as written
- Publication gate
- passed
- Human review
- none
WHAT THE EDITOR DID
The second model checked the writer's draft against the same sources and published it as written.
Written by a language model from the sources above, then checked by a second model that may only cut, attribute or correct. How it works →