CONTENT WARNING: American politics. Also, violent rhetoric.
Okay, so last night Donald Trump appeared at a rally in Nebraska and he made a rather disturbing comment regarding the high prices of gas and groceries during the US/Iran war. Please note: This was a very important topic for Trump to address ahead of midterm elections, since the high prices are legitimately the biggest failing the Republicans are facing due to Trump’s war and tariffs. If he ignores the costs rural Americans are suffering through, he risks losing single issue voters and swing voters, thus pushing the overall government more Democrat and less under his control. So here is what he said word-for-word:
”And again, remember, with the war, 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 out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego This is a very small price to pay, and it’s going to be over with very soon. It’s essentially almost over with.”
I’ve got a lot of thoughts about this small quote.
1. Obviously, Trump’s administration can (and probably will) explain that the claims on the two cities were just a joke or even randomly picked cities as examples. I would argue the safety of over a million lives is not an appropriate subject for a world leader to joke about, which would normally necessitate an apology to the civilians of those cities. I’ll get into why these particular cities were unlikely randomly picked in point 3.
2. There was cheering that started when he said they could “take out a city,” but the cheering went wild when he mentioned Los Angeles and San Diego. Even if the audience interpreted it as an off-color joke - which I doubt - that seems a little extreme to cheer on the bombing of two highly populated cities. This is just a glimpse into the insane extremes his fanbase are pushing him towards.
3. Fun facts about Los Angeles and San Diego: For y’all in the UK, California is FAMOUSLY Democratic. Mentioning those two cities in particular immediately elicits a response from Republicans who view those cities as being fully populated by Democrats. I know that Los Angeles in particular is also famous for being immensely populated by Mexican immigrants and has a large LGBTQ+ community. San Diego, I imagine, is probably very similar.
4. Republican voters may be less aware of this, but one last fun fact about Los Angeles is that it has the highest population of Iranian immigrants in the USA. If Iran had the potential for bombing an American city in any way, that city is legitimately a likely target (behind the obvious of Washington D.C. and New York City). There is no other city in America with as many Iranian-born opposers of the current Iranian regime, and there’s even talk that some activists there are being targeted and surveilled already. So Trump probably wasn’t thinking about it, but he did pick a city that would specifically be in danger.
5. Of course I don’t have evidence one way or another, but I’d be AMAZED if Iran ever had the capability of hitting American cities, even if they manage to independently develop nuclear weaponry. I‘m fairly certain that would only be plausible with assistance from Russia and/or China, which would be insanely dumb and dangerous of them to invest ICBMs into Iran. Like, what good would that do for Russia/China? Yeah, Iran could attack America on their behalf, but the rule of “mutually assured destruction” would certainly pull them into that nuclear war, too. If Iran becomes a nuclear state, then they threaten US allies around the Middle East, NOT the USA directly. Trump mentioning Iran bombing any cities on American soil is stupid fear-mongering. It’s really Russia, China, and North Korea that pose that risk, not Iran.
6. Democrats are going to interpret this quote as Trump directly welcoming Iran to bomb those cities. I mean, he did say “Let them,” so that’s not a stretch of the imagination out of context. News headlines are obviously going to tout that interpretation for higher viewership. While that will serve only to further infuriate his myriad enemies, this is also a massive appeal to his fanbase (as I mentioned in point 2). He is dipping into a lot of desperate actions to excite his followers (remember, he recently promised $5,000 per citizen that will obviously never happen), so there is a possibility that he might throw out even more of this sort of violent rhetoric leading up to the midterms. This won’t be the last time we hear him support violence leading up to November, mark my words.
7. As always, Trump is promising a swift end to the war. It would be funny and ironic if so many lives weren’t in danger. Also, notice that all of my points focus on his statements regarding bombing cities? That’s the whole point of this message. He is once again deflecting blame for the high costs, this time by directing everyone’s attention to a mythical, fantastical vision of nuclear war.
So yeah, this small quote has excited a ton of emotions in me. It’s feeling like dangerous statements such as this are weirdly acceptable now here in the States since he gets no real reprimand for it, and I’m really worried about that.
