San Diego is home to one of the largest concentrations of American military power anywhere in the world. More than 115,000 active duty service members are stationed here. Aircraft carriers, destroyers, submarines, Navy SEALs and Marines deploy from the region to defend the United States, including thousands of local sailors and Marines who have spent much of this year directly involved in the war with Iran. That reality made President Donald Trump's choice of words Monday night particularly jarring.
Speaking before supporters at a campaign rally in Grand Island, Nebraska, Trump was defending the continuing war with Iran and the higher fuel prices accompanying it when he abruptly invoked California's two largest cities.
"It's a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe," Trump said.
Then came the line that immediately ricocheted across California.
"They can 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 crowd cheered. Exactly what Trump intended by the remarks is less clear than the words themselves.
The statement came as Trump argued that Americans should tolerate the economic consequences of the Iran conflict because of the greater danger he says the war is preventing. One possible reading is that Trump was describing the destruction of an American city as the potential consequence of allowing Iran to remain unchecked, rather than literally inviting Iran to attack California.
But his syntax placed "let 'em take out Los Angeles" and "let 'em take out San Diego" immediately between two declarations that the costs of the war were a "small price to pay." Trump did not explain the distinction, qualify the statement or indicate that he was speaking hypothetically. That ambiguity did little to temper the response in San Diego.
"San Diego is not collateral damage," Mayor Todd Gloria wrote following Trump's comments. "We are not expendable. And we are never a 'small price to pay.' Keep our city out of your reckless war talk."
California Governor Gavin Newsom went further, calling Trump "deranged and dangerous" and accusing the president of saying America's foreign enemies should "take out" Los Angeles and San Diego. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called the remarks dangerous and said a president's role is to protect American cities, not encourage attacks against them.
California Senator Alex Padilla and San Diego area Representatives Sara Jacobs and Scott Peters also condemned the remarks, with the criticism taking on particular significance in San Diego because the region isn't simply another large American metropolitan area.
It is one of the country's most important military centers. The San Diego Military Advisory Council counts more than 115,000 active duty service members stationed throughout the region, including roughly one out of every six active duty sailors in the United States Navy and one out of every four active duty Marines in the Marine Corps. San Diego is also home to more than 230,000 veterans.
Naval Base San Diego is the largest surface ship homeport on the West Coast and principal homeport of the Pacific Fleet's surface force, supporting more than 50 ships across 13 piers. Naval Base Coronado encompasses Naval Air Station North Island and Naval Amphibious Base Coronado, while Camp Pendleton is home to I Marine Expeditionary Force and the 1st Marine Division. Marine Corps Air Station Miramar and Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego further anchor the region's enormous military footprint.
The military is so deeply embedded in San Diego that its presence reaches far beyond people in uniform. The most recent Military Economic Impact Report prepared by the San Diego Military Advisory Council and UC San Diego's Rady School of Management estimated that defense activity supports nearly 357,000 jobs and contributes approximately $61.3 billion to the regional economy, accounting for roughly 22% of San Diego's gross regional product.
And San Diego's connection to the Iran war Trump was discussing Monday isn't theoretical. The San Diego based USS Abraham Lincoln became one of the central American military assets in the conflict after being redirected to the Middle East. Aircraft operating from the carrier participated in strikes against Iran beginning in March. The massive ship carries a crew of roughly 5,000 sailors and Marines when deployed.
The deployment became extraordinary in length. The Lincoln ultimately spent months in the Middle East and more than 300 days deployed, with reports of severe strain among sailors and their families as the carrier remained at sea for unusually long stretches. The ship is now finally making its way back toward San Diego. The USS Abraham Lincoln is scheduled to return to San Diego at Naval Air Station North Island on Thursday, October 8, at around 12pm noon.
As one San Diego carrier comes home, another has already left. The USS Theodore Roosevelt quietly departed San Diego on September 27 for an expected extended deployment toward the Middle East, where it is expected to help sustain American naval operations connected to the Iran conflict.
San Diego based amphibious forces have also been directly involved. Approximately 2,500 Marines from Camp Pendleton's 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit arrived off Iran earlier this summer aboard the San Diego based USS Boxer amphibious assault ship and accompanying vessels.
In other words, some of the Americans carrying out the very war Trump was defending Monday live in San Diego, train in San Diego, deploy from San Diego and have spouses and children waiting for them in San Diego.
That makes the president's decision to specifically name the city notable for another reason: the Trump administration itself has repeatedly come to the San Diego region to celebrate precisely that military community.
Vice President JD Vance has particularly strong connections here. Vance is the first former U.S. Marine to serve as vice president. He enlisted after high school and served four years in the Marine Corps, including a deployment to Iraq as a combat correspondent.
His wife, Second Lady Usha Vance, has an even more direct San Diego connection. She grew up in the region, graduated from Mt. Carmel High School in Rancho Peñasquitos and has family ties to UC San Diego, where her mother has served as a professor and administrator.
The vice president and second lady visited Camp Pendleton in July 2025, where the Marine Corps said their visit was intended to support military families and emphasize wellness, education and community engagement. Vance returned to Camp Pendleton three months later for the Marine Corps' massive 250th anniversary celebration, joined by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other senior administration officials.
Speaking to thousands of Marines there, Vance described Camp Pendleton as having a special place in Marine Corps culture and praised the Marines of the 1st Marine Division, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, 1st Marine Logistics Group and I Marine Expeditionary Force.
He also delivered a message directly from Trump. Vance told the Marines that the president wanted them to know "that he's proud of you, that he loves you."
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has also made San Diego a highly visible stage for the administration's military agenda. In June, Hegseth traveled to Naval Base Coronado for the first NASCAR Cup Series race ever held on an active American military installation, serving as honorary starter as more than 40,000 spectators gathered for the race celebrating the Navy's 250th anniversary. The broader weekend drew upward of 100,000 visitors, service members, military families and community partners to the base.
Hegseth has simultaneously been closely involved in decisions affecting San Diego based forces during the Iran war. He publicly defended conditions aboard the extraordinarily long deployed USS Abraham Lincoln after reports raised concerns about sailors' mental health, supplies and quality of life.
Trump himself is hardly unfamiliar with San Diego. During his first administration, the region became one of the most visible stages for his signature border policies.
Trump traveled to San Diego in March 2018 for his first visit to California as president, inspecting competing border wall prototypes near Otay Mesa before later addressing service members at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.
He returned in September 2019, again traveling to Otay Mesa to inspect newly installed border barriers. Trump praised the wall and said San Diego officials had told him conditions were dramatically improved. Afterward, he departed the region through MCAS Miramar.
San Diego's geographic importance extends beyond its military bases. The region sits directly on the U.S. Mexico border and contains San Ysidro and Otay Mesa, two of the country's busiest land ports of entry. During Trump's 2019 visit, federal officials said roughly 400,000 people were crossing the San Diego border with Mexico on an average day at the time.
The city is therefore unusually intertwined with three pillars of Trump's national agenda: border security, military power and the administration's foreign policy. That context makes Monday's remark difficult to dismiss as simply the president naming two random cities.
It is also important, however, not to exaggerate the immediate threat suggested by Trump's words. There is currently no publicly disclosed evidence that Iran possesses a conventional ballistic missile capable of being launched from Iranian territory and striking San Diego.
The Los Angeles Times noted that Iran has maintained a self imposed ballistic missile range limitation of approximately 1,240 miles, dramatically short of the distance to Southern California. American officials have long warned that Iran's space program could eventually contribute to development of intercontinental missile technology, but that is different from demonstrating an operational capability to strike San Diego today.
California authorities were warned earlier this year about the possibility of unconventional threats such as drone attacks connected to the Iran conflict, but officials told the Los Angeles Times at the time that there was no credible intelligence supporting an imminent attack.
San Diego nevertheless presents an obvious concentration of strategically important American military infrastructure, which is precisely why rhetoric involving the destruction of the city carries a different weight here than it might elsewhere.
The region houses aircraft carriers, major surface combatants, amphibious forces, Marine expeditionary units, naval aviation, special warfare forces and some of the infrastructure responsible for projecting American military power across the Pacific and beyond.
It is also home to the people operating those systems. More than 115,000 active duty service members do not live behind some invisible wall separating them from the rest of San Diego. They live in neighborhoods from Oceanside and Fallbrook to Coronado, Chula Vista and East County. Their spouses work here. Their children attend school here. Many remain here after leaving the military.
The Trump administration knows that relationship intimately. Its vice president is a Marine married to a woman raised in San Diego. Its defense secretary stood on Naval Base Coronado just months ago celebrating the Navy. The president himself has addressed Marines at Miramar and repeatedly used San Diego's border as a backdrop for one of the defining policies of his political career. And today, thousands of San Diego sailors and Marines are directly bearing the burden of the conflict Trump was discussing when he uttered those words.
Trump said Monday that the Iran war is nearly finished.
"It's going to be over with very soon," the president said after his remarks about Los Angeles and San Diego, while acknowledging that the conflict could continue somewhat longer.
The military movements underway tell a more complicated story. Just eight days before Trump's Nebraska speech, the USS Theodore Roosevelt sailed out of San Diego for an extended deployment expected to take it toward the Middle East. Pentagon preparations reported last week contemplate a significant naval buildup in the region as the administration weighs its next moves against Iran.
California authorities were warned earlier this year about the possibility of unconventional threats such as drone attacks connected to the Iran conflict, but officials told the Los Angeles Times at the time that there was no credible intelligence supporting an imminent attack.
San Diego nevertheless presents an obvious concentration of strategically important American military infrastructure, which is precisely why rhetoric involving the destruction of the city carries a different weight here than it might elsewhere.
The region houses aircraft carriers, major surface combatants, amphibious forces, Marine expeditionary units, naval aviation, special warfare forces and some of the infrastructure responsible for projecting American military power across the Pacific and beyond.
It is also home to the people operating those systems. More than 115,000 active duty service members do not live behind some invisible wall separating them from the rest of San Diego. They live in neighborhoods from Oceanside and Fallbrook to Coronado, Chula Vista and East County. Their spouses work here. Their children attend school here. Many remain here after leaving the military.
The Trump administration knows that relationship intimately. Its vice president is a Marine married to a woman raised in San Diego. Its defense secretary stood on Naval Base Coronado just months ago celebrating the Navy. The president himself has addressed Marines at Miramar and repeatedly used San Diego's border as a backdrop for one of the defining policies of his political career. And today, thousands of San Diego sailors and Marines are directly bearing the burden of the conflict Trump was discussing when he uttered those words.
Trump said Monday that the Iran war is nearly finished.
"It's going to be over with very soon," the president said after his remarks about Los Angeles and San Diego, while acknowledging that the conflict could continue somewhat longer.
The military movements underway tell a more complicated story. Just eight days before Trump's Nebraska speech, the USS Theodore Roosevelt sailed out of San Diego for an extended deployment expected to take it toward the Middle East. Pentagon preparations reported last week contemplate a significant naval buildup in the region as the administration weighs its next moves against Iran.
There is no indication that Trump was announcing a new threat assessment for San Diego on Monday, and no evidence has emerged that his reference to the city was based on intelligence about an impending Iranian attack. There is also ambiguity about whether "let them take out San Diego" was meant literally, sarcastically, rhetorically or as a poorly constructed hypothetical about what could happen if Iran were not confronted. But there is no ambiguity about what the president actually said.
"Let 'em take out Los Angeles. Let 'em take out San Diego."
For a city that has spent generations sending its sailors and Marines into America's wars, including the one Trump was defending when he said it, those words landed differently. San Diego isn't merely a city watching the war with Iran from thousands of miles away. A substantial part of America's force fighting that war comes from here.
Originally published October 5, 2026.
