REPORTS ABOUT TAKING OUT LOS ANGELES AND SAN DIEGO ARE GREATLY EXAGGERATED.

It’s four weeks until Election Day and Donald Trump is doing his utmost to dig Republicans out of their polling hole. In theory, anyway. Trump has been rallying through red states – Alabama, Oklahoma, Texas – to try and secure existing Senate seats. But today’s Democratic pile-on concerns a throwaway comment he made last night in Nebraska. Mid-weave, of course.

The President said: “It’s a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe. They could take out a city… ‘let ’em, let ’em take Los Angeles, let ’em take out San Diego, that’s…’ this is a very small price to pay… and it’s gonna be over with very soon, it’s essentially almost over with.”

Now anybody who has followed Donald Trump, even passingly, in the last ten years, should be able to discern what he was getting at here.

He was acknowledging the cost of the Iran war, and attempting to justify his decision to start the now seven-month-long conflict.

The clips now going viral on X paraphrase Trump differently. “Trump on Iran: Let ’em take out Los Angeles and San Diego, it’s a small price to pay,” reads the caption of a tweet from “Headquarters,” an account that was previously “@KamalaHQ,” run by the Harris campaign’s rapid response team. The ensuing reaction from the media, and Trump’s opponents, is just as disingenuous. “Trump suggests letting Iran ‘take out’ Los Angeles and San Diego at campaign rally,” reads the Los Angeles Times headline. “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,” tweeted Governor Gavin Newsom last night. “He is deranged and dangerous.”

Wait, isn’t Karen Bass doing a good enough job of nuking LA already, without bringing in the Iranians?