California Officials Respond to Trump’s Comments on Iran and U.S. Cities

The takes

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  Adam Smith

  1723–1790, Scotland (the Scottish Enlightenment: Kirkcaldy, Glasgow, Edinburgh)

  War Talk Has a Price, and It Is Not Paid in Nebraska Applause

  When a president jokes that foreign powers might “take out” great cities as a small price of safety, he spends the lives of others as if they were loose coin in his own pocket.

  A president of a great republic, speaking at a rally far from the coasts, has lately mused that if a foreign enemy should “take out” Los Angeles or San Diego, it would be “a very small price to pay” for keeping the country, and indeed the world, safe. The crowd, we are told, laughed and cheered. When reporters repeated his words, the president dismissed the backlash as a mere “media freakout,” while his official spokesmen insisted he had only meant that such cities would have been threatened had he not already gone to war against that enemy. The words remain; the people on whom they fall remain also; explanations do not erase either.

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  John Locke

  1632–1704, England (writing amid the Exclusion Crisis and the Glorious Revolution)

  When a Ruler Offers Up His Own Cities

  An executive who invites a foreign power to 'take out' his people, even in jest, steps outside the bounds of legitimate government and into usurpation.

  At a rally in Nebraska, in the midst of defending a war against Iran as necessary to “keep the world safe,” the American president is reported to have said, “Let them take out L.A., let them take out San Diego,” adding that this was “a very small price to pay, and it’s going to be over with very soon.” The crowd, we are told, laughed and cheered. The next morning, the governor of California publicly directed his State Threat Assessment Center to monitor whether foreign actors might treat this as an “invitation.” Meanwhile the president’s own officers insisted he meant only that those cities would have been threatened had he not already gone to war.

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  Niccolò Machiavelli

  1469–1527, Florence (republican secretary and diplomat, then exile, amid the Italian Wars)

  Reckless Talk Is Not Strength: On Threatening Your Own Cities

  A ruler who jokes about foreign enemies “taking out” his own great cities mistakes noise for power and risks turning salutary fear into corrosive hatred.

  The scene is ugly but simple. At a rally, the president, in defending his war on Iran as necessary to “keep the world safe,” muses that Iran could “take out” Los Angeles or San Diego, calling such destruction a “very small price to pay.” The crowd laughs and cheers. California leaders do not. They call the words “deranged and dangerous,” speak of “reckless war talk,” and even set a State Threat Assessment Center to watch whether foreign actors treat the remark as an invitation. The White House then insists he only meant that, without his earlier war, those cities would have been threatened. The palace says prudence; the provinces hear contempt.

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