During a campaign rally Monday night in Grand Island, Nebraska, President Donald Trump was going through his usual insistence that gas prices are only temporarily high and worth it as part of his war on Iran.

Then he added a new wrinkle, floating the idea that Tehran could “take out” two major American cities.

“They could take out a city,” he said. "Let ‘em take out Los Angeles. Let ’em take out San Diego.”

He continued as the crowd laughed and cheered: “This is a very small price to pay, and it’s going to be over with very soon.”

The comments quickly received bipartisan backlash.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who may run for president in 2028, answered on X, calling Trump “deranged and dangerous.”

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, a Democrat, wrote on X that his city is “not collateral damage.”

"We are not expendable,” Gloria posted. “And we are never a ‘small price to pay.’ Keep our city out of your reckless war talk."

Jim Desmond, a Republican running for a San Diego House district, wrote that he disagreed with Trump's comments and that no American city is expendable.

“As a Navy veteran, I served to protect Americans, not write off American cities as an acceptable price of war,” he wrote. “Our job is to keep Americans safe, stand up to our enemies, and make sure a threat like that never becomes reality.”

Some lawmakers who criticized the president’s comments noted San Diego’s large military population.

A White House X account took exception to a Los Angeles Times social media post saying, “Trump suggests letting Iran 'take out' Los Angeles and San Diego at campaign rally.”

“No, he didn't, you buffoons,” the Rapid Response 47 account wrote. “He was saying the U.S. is fighting to STOP Iran from having the ability to take out LA and San Diego with a nuclear weapon — which they would if they had the chance.”

Trump has a history of denigrating U.S. cities, especially the largest ones that lean heavily Democratic. Los Angeles was among the cities where Trump deployed federal military personnel for what he said was a crackdown on crime, despite local authorities not wanting the troops.

At a recent North Carolina campaign rally, Trump said the state’s cities are “blood-soaked killing fields.” North Carolina’s violent crime rate ranks in the middle third of states, according to FBI statistics.