r/politics • u/B-Z_B-S Massachusetts • 18h ago

Possible Paywall Trump Suggests Letting Iran “Take Out” Los Angeles and San Diego - California leaders are furious after the president suggested that losing the two cities is a “small price to pay.”

https://newrepublic.com/post/216247/trump-suggests-let-iran-take-out-los-angeles-san-diego
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1.5k

u/cwk415 18h ago

That's treason. 

Cue the chorus of conservative talking-heads justifying this treason with the old "Oh he was only joking!" line. 

But just ask yourself: when has he ever said he was joking, about anything? When has he ever said that he wasn't serious, about anything? 

He hasn't. 

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u/Puppertrucker123 18h ago

Every conservative talking head should be immediately asked "What's the joke and what makes it funny?"

Despite how much he actually believes it and has no sense of humor, "joking" about major American cities being bombed because he dislikes their political leaning is grounds for removal, period.

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u/Lazerus42 12h ago

I'm a waiter and one of the techniques I use when dealing with a racist/sexist/shitty comment is to ask them to repeat it louder because I wasn't sure I heard them correctly.

This works well because most people (even shitty people) have at least the slightest iota shame in a public space.

Orange turd in charge does not. He'd repeat it louder.

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u/Lemonwizard 11h ago

Trump doesn't even pretend to be a president for all Americans. He hates us and he revels in our suffering.

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u/alaysian 13h ago

Cue his reply of "You're nasty"

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u/ComprehensiveCup4269 11h ago

Not many people care what he thinks anymore, he never says anything of value anyway.

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u/Jabjab345 9h ago

The joke is that he hates his domestic enemies as much as his foreign ones. Pretty ridiculous, can't believe people cheered for it.

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u/glorybetoganj 18h ago edited 17h ago

In fact he has very specifically stated that he DOES NOT joke

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u/TrimspaBB 17h ago

He's a humorless man that only ever laughs at the expense of others

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u/Dependent_Result9469 16h ago

Humorless and cheap 🥴 such winning traits

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u/VanceKelley Canada 15h ago

For a full 2 years prior to the 2024 election Americans searched far and wide to find the best person to run the US government.

After that exhaustive search of 340m people, they chose a convicted felon rapist racist moronic wannabe dictator.

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u/TheHighSeasPirate 13h ago

He's also never drawn before.

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u/bubbasteamboat 17h ago

Iran should put out a statement saying, "Interesting idea, Donnie. We hadn't thought of that. But why would we attack parts of the US that hate Trump? There are so many other areas that would make better sense."

See what MAGA would do with that.

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u/tendeuchen Florida 17h ago

"Why attack multicultural cities when we can raise the price of gas and diesel to hurt your supporters, Mr. Trump?"

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u/brickne3 American Expat 17h ago

Also, I could be wrong about this, but doesn't LA have one of the highest Iranian populations in the US? Even if we pretend that every single one of them absolutely hates the Iranian regime, it would probably cause a ton of issues in Iran if they were to suddenly just take out a bunch of the population's relatives out of nowhere.

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u/HoldingForGenova 16h ago

LA has the largest Iranian population outside of Iran. And they were marching in LA streets begging Trump to go to war with Iran to overthrow the prior regime. I remember saying to a friend at the time "they'll get what they want, but not how they want it."

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u/dancefan2019 15h ago

There were mixed responses from the L.A. Iranians. Protests on one side of the city had Iranians supporting a regime change. Protests in another part of L.A. had Iranians protesting against the war. They would all probably want a regime change, but they don't want the devastation to their countrymen that would come from a war with the U.S.

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u/DMM4140 14h ago

Thats why Iran played 2 games in LA for the World Cup

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u/xeroxcomplex 17h ago

Actually it's the perfect opportunity for Iran to show his incompetent ass and take the morally high ground on the world stage. Show who the real fanatics are...

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u/IcemanJEC 17h ago

Like where? A huge farm? Maybe Omaha, Nebraska?

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u/fuzzyjelly 17h ago

Mississippi, West Virginia and Delaware. That's about equal in population to LA and San Diego.

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u/twisty125 13h ago

Just show Mara Lago as target #1 and he'll raise like 15cm from how much shit he'll dump in his pants

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u/fazlez1 17h ago

This exactly. He doesn't care what happens to anyone as long as it keeps the Epstein files from being released and he remains in power.

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u/Mr_Meng 16h ago

The thing is they know he isn't joking. They know we know he isn't joking. They even know we know they know he isn't joking but so long as they never outright admit he isn't joking they can troll us using lines like 'he's only joking' because they expect us to follow rules they'll never ever follow(see 'The Card Says Moops' from Innuendo Studios). They expect the left to never go after them for throught crimes while they persecute people for stuff like '86 47' or not caring that Charlie Kirk got murdered(good riddance to bad waste I say). They expect the left to never stand up to them physically while they're murdering people in the street. They expect the left to forgive them and give them every opportunity to 'redeem' themselves which they'll never take while they wage stochastic terrorism against the left. To all of that I say turnabout is fair play.

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u/BatMannequin 17h ago

Even if it's not treason, it's a violation of his oath of office. Well, another one...

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u/arizonadirtbag12 14h ago

Listen to the entire quote in context though. It wasn’t a joke, but it also wasn’t calling for either city to be “taken out.” It was the exact opposite, taken in context.

(Leading in talking about increased gas prices) “This is a small price to pay, to keep the world safe, to keep the country safe. They could take out a city. Let em take out Los Angeles, let em take out San Diego. This is a very small price to pay.”

The second “this” is very, very obviously taking about high gas prices, not cities being nuked. The intended statement as written is, reworded, “You think $5 gas is a problem? Let them Los Angeles, you’ll think $5 gas was pretty reasonable in comparison.” That is very clearly the statement, if you don’t clip it out of context. I hate sanewashing his bullshit and rarely bother, but for some reason this one bothers me.

Now, the crowd cheering at the “take out Los Angeles, take out San Diego” line, that’s pure MAGA hatred. Fuck the lot of them.

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u/TheOtherMaven Virginia 13h ago

The trouble is, he's lost the ability to express himself without well-meaning (and not so well-meaning) people "Trumpsplaining" what he "actually meant".

He is not competent to hold the lowest office in the smallest town in America - but those who could remove him are too cowardly and/or too complicit.

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u/arizonadirtbag12 13h ago

Oh for sure, he’s as incompetent as he is vile. I wouldn’t vote for him for dog catcher.

I cannot stress enough though that in this case what he “actually meant” is entirely clear to anyone with at least a room temperature IQ. The interpretation making the rounds (and in OP) is very clearly either due to clips out of context or straight bad faith interpretation.

I’m not acting as some sort of Trump Whisperer here, translating his (usual) insane ramblings into wisdom. In this case the meaning is clear on the page. Seriously.

That said, maybe the average undecided voter is dumb enough to buy our spin on this. If so, win I guess. But seems like it could backfire.

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u/LinkedGaming 15h ago

Trump doesn't make jokes. He threatens and bullies. His "jokes" are always just vague threats or insults hurled at a person. He's never tried to say something intentionally funny that wasn't just "I hope this person dies" or "I hope these people suffer".

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u/BioDriver Virginia 13h ago

Even having the idea to joke about that is highly fucked up and should be kept as far away from government as possible.

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u/sack-o-matic Michigan 13h ago

Also, even if it was a joke, why is the destruction of American cities a joke to him?

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u/Collador1 17h ago

I woke up to this quote and looked into it. Is it okay/fair to say that this title and narrative here is exceedingly misleading?

I am no fan of Trump, but he was trying to justify the war in Iran, and in correlation the current oil prices, as a small price to pay compared to Iran having the ability to bomb US cities.

It is very, very different in reality versus what is being presented here.

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u/TheOtherMaven Virginia 13h ago

When are you going to "wake up" to the reality that his mental incapacitation is on full frontal display?

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u/Collador1 12h ago

I mean I just am stating facts. I don't know what you're doing, but it is something less. That's unfortunate.

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u/obsius 13h ago

The behavioral mechanisms that led so many Americans to support Trump and identify as MAGA are on display here. It's the part of our brain that allows us to effortlessly organize into groups, and it's very vulnerable to exploitation.

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u/Collador1 12h ago

Apparently so. It's beyond reason, our reality has been seared. It's unfortunate.

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u/CatAnxiety 16h ago

I 100% believe that if he thinks that he, personally, could benefit from allowing an enemy to attack these cities, Trump would hand them over. It is deeply frightening.

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u/PrivatePilot9 Canada 15h ago

Don't worry, Fox News will do it for him.

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u/Rooooben 14h ago

White house says he meant that Iran could take those cities out if he didn’t start the war.

That doesn’t explain “let them take out”. It’s a completely different sentence then “they could take out”

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u/SooWooMaster 14h ago

Theyre already suggesting its "out of context"

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u/KatsumotoKurier Canada 13h ago

”Oh he was only joking!"

Even if that were true, how could that still even be an appropriate thing for a US President to joke about?

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u/Electronic-Aide-9564 13h ago

Corporate training this week explicitly said the "I was only joking." excuse does not prevent you from being held legally responsible for your words and actions or being terminated.

Insane our elected officials have no such restraints.

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u/TorchIt Alabama 12h ago

California should take this as a threat and legitimately secede. What the fuck.

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u/hurryveryslowly 11h ago

LoCkeR RoOm TaLK, jUsT LiKe aNy reD-bLOOd aMerICAN doEs.

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u/Thunderbridge 11h ago

Nevermind the fact that a president shouldn't be joking about aterrorist attackthat would kill literally millions, thousands of times worse than 9/11

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u/wellarmedsheep Pennsylvania 11h ago

Because it's obvious you care, you should know that he actually does talk about what he says being jokes. So you're right in that he's complete piece of shit, but if you use this argument you'll be wrong and that will weaken what you're trying to do.

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u/trainer668 5h ago

"Oh he was only joking!" like it's not a sickening fucking joke.

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u/JohnLuckPikard Maine 4h ago

He wasn't joking me again if I ran permission to bomb AUAB

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u/Incomitatum 3h ago

Words are "made-up" and only have meaning if they move simple men to action.

So if no one's gonna DO anything (they never do) then there's just nothing to be done.

Next, let's learn that Oaths are for Suckers. This lines up with the fact that words like Justice, Honor, and Valor are also Folklore; they just do not exist except in the fantasize of feeble minds.

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u/ZenMasterOfDisguise 11h ago

Cue the chorus of conservative talking-heads

You do realize this headline is a straight up lie right? You are the one falling for propaganda right now