L.A. & San Diego Are a “Small Price to Pay”
According to the commander-in-chief
By: Austin Abbring
October 9, 2026
“Let them hit a missile into San Diego or Los Angeles on the way. Let them hit. You want to see a horror show? You want to see problems? Let them hit San Diego. Let them hit Los Angeles if you want to see some bad things happen. You want to see a country that would be in free fall?” This, of course, is a totally rational excerpt from a speech President Trump made in Nebraska and then reiterated in San Antonio a couple of days ago. I want you to imagine a world where Kamala Harris won the presidential election in 2024, did Benjamin Netanyahu’s bidding by starting an illegal war of choice with Iran, and then 8 months later suggested that Los Angeles and San Diego would be small prices to pay in order to go full on in retaliation against Iran.
This would be a daily story on Fox News long after my mortal coil expires on this Earth. Obviously, Donald Trump will get away with this line, along with the thousands of, let’s call them, irrational lines over the past decade. Corporate media's failure in this country is astonishing. But when wealth is so concentrated that a handful of major corporations can essentially own all the media, this is the result. I am not suggesting that only Republican presidents and lawmakers should be held to the fire by news outlets, but this is just insane. Barack Obama’s infamous tan suit got several days of coverage on right-wing spheres. Donald Trump suggesting the sacrifice of L.A. and San Diego, which would only be roughly 5 million Americans, will get the same coverage - if any from the right. These two stories could not be more antithetical.
Had FDR suggested that it would ok for imperial Japan to occupy Honolulu, or had Abraham Lincoln conceded it would be fine if the Confederate South seized Baltimore, Maryland, and they called these “acceptable prices to pay”, I think we could all agree that is inconceivable thinking from our leaders. Which is precisely what we do not have. And why we have fallen so rapidly in this era. I could play whataboutisms all day, so I will not bore you with that. No matter the framing of this, whether it is hyperbole, it is using two entire American cities as cannon fodder to have the excuse to fully let loose on Iran, or used as justification for preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, it is just absurd. I hate sounding like a broken record, but Iran has not been and is not developing a nuclear weapon. Iran seized its nuclear weapon development all the way back in 2003, and has not been exploring a nuclear weapon capability since, per testimony from our own intelligence agencies and personnel. The only action Iran has taken is that it has enriched its uranium to around 60% prior to the war. This is only because Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from the JCPOA in 2018 during his first administration. Prior to President Trump removing us from the nuclear deal, Iran had complied with and passed every independent inspection from the IAEA and maintained the allotted 3.6% enriched uranium for civilian use only. This is all a bald-faced lie.
This should be stated as well: the idea that Iran - if it were actually developing a nuclear arm - would, immediately upon creating their only nuclear weapon, instantaneously launch it towards U.S. soil. Did North Korea do that when they finally developed a nuke? I can’t seem to recall. Iran’s longest-range missile right now could only reach mainland Europe. The notion that all of a sudden, at 60% uranium, Iran has all of these insane capabilities is again a sack of lies and fear-mongering from a president who has no clue how to remove us from this engagement, and his only concern with this war is personal gain in the form of capital for personal enrichment.
In his San Antonio address, Trump added that, “We’re not going to let that happen. We protect our cities. We protect our country. We’re not letting that happen.” Yeah, I do not buy that for a single moment, for a multitude of reasons. A - because Donald Trump would not care whatsoever if a “liberal, blue city” got wiped off the map. I honestly do not think he would bat an eye at that. You do not need me to remind you of the rhetoric Trump, his cronies, and the right-wing electorate have used against blue states and cities. B - we already have proof that he does not protect our cities or our country because he already does not do this without the annihilation of American cities via a third party. How many times has Donald Trump, in his administrations, claimed that he would block and deny FEMA to historically blue states? They have delayed funds or outright refused to provide disaster relief to several blue states, most recently Illinois after the derecho in August, so much so that these states have had to sue to get federal judges to rule so that they can get relief. Relief to, you know, the American people. People that the President and the government's apparatus protect and serve, no matter their political affiliation. That’s the whole lack of leadership and intentional division in this country that I have been harping on in this post and the previous one. We are all brothers and sisters, Americans. Our president doesn't see it that way. That is why, going back to FEMA provisions, Donald Trump has approved just 23 percent of disaster relief requests for Democratic states and 89 percent for Republican-led states.
All of this hatred and division, and then suggesting that 5 million U.S. citizens could be taken out, and that would be ok in Trump’s eyes, has me thinking of the USS Abraham Lincoln. It finally returned to port yesterday after a nearly year-long deployment, low-lighted by food and supply shortages, mold, sewage backups, broken facilities, low morale, and suicide attempts by sailors. There is a reason morale was so broken on this ship. Nonexistent leadership by Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth, and military personnel who have no clue why they are engaged in a fruitless and unnecessary war. These soldiers are not dumb. They know they are fighting a war that the president has them engaged in on behalf of Israel. They are being used as a distraction from the Epstein Files and a failing, completely corrupt Republican Party. They are being wounded for weapons manufacturers' bottom line. They are dying for big oil. You did not have men and women on the verge of mutiny in the Second World War. They had a reason to fight, a cause to back up, a homeland to preserve and protect, a sense of pride and healthy nationalism, and peoples to liberate alongside numerous allied forces. This war could not be further from that. Instead, servicepeople have a president on live TV suggesting their homeland could be devastated, and that’s acceptable losses. Just a reminder: San Diego is one of the Navy's largest homeports, and Los Angeles is less than 100 miles from one of the Marine Corps' largest bases. Welcome home, men and women. You have a completely deranged president at the helm.
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