Trump calls attacks on California cities 'a small price to pay'

What Trump said in Grand Island

At a midterm campaign rally at the Pinnacle Bank Expo Center in Grand Island, Nebraska, on 5 October 2026, President Donald Trump turned to the ongoing US military campaign against Iran and made a calculation out loud.^[1] Trump told the crowd: "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. This is a very small price to pay."^[2]

The remarks came inside the broader context of Operation Epic Fury, the US military campaign Trump ordered in early 2026, encompassing air strikes, naval blockades and missile attacks against Iranian military targets. By July 2026 the White House said US naval forces held total control of the Strait of Hormuz, backed by Space Force intelligence and strike readiness.^[5]

California's reaction

Sacramento and San Diego both responded within hours. Governor Gavin Newsom said: "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."^[3]

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said on 6 October 2026: "San Diego is not collateral damage. We are not expendable. And we are never a 'small price to pay.' Keep our city out of your reckless war talk."^[4] Gloria's city is home to one of the largest concentrations of US Navy and Marine Corps personnel in the world, a fact that gave his words an operational weight well beyond the political.

The congressional dimension

Senator Alex Padilla of California placed the remarks inside a running casualty count, saying at least 19 US servicemembers had made "the ultimate sacrifice" in what he called Trump's "unauthorised war with Iran" before the president took the stage in Nebraska. Padilla named Noah Tietjens of Nebraska among the dead.^[6] Tietjens was from the very state Trump was trying to energise for the November midterms, a detail that cut through the rally setting.

Representative Sara Jacobs, whose San Diego district includes active-duty service members and their families, said her constituents were not acceptable collateral damage in Trump's conflict.^[7]

The federal-California fault line

The intensity of the state's reaction draws on what came before. Trump's 2025 deployment of National Guard and Marine units into Los Angeles to enforce immigration law produced a sustained clash between the White House and California officials, who framed those actions as federal overreach into a state that had not requested assistance. Newsom's reference to occupation on 6 October was a deliberate callback to that episode.^[3]

The Grand Island rally was part of Trump's broader midterm campaign blitz, with control of the Senate and House on the line in November 2026.^[1] Nebraska was among the states targeted to lock in Republican turnout, and Trump's remarks blended foreign policy positioning with his standard rally cadence. Whether that calculation lands with voters in a landlocked Midwest state, while the cities he named sit more than 2,000 kilometres west, will become clearer when November results come in.