White House Calls LA Times ‘Buffoons’ as Selectively Edited Trump Clip Fuels Manufactured Outrage

The Democratic outrage machine went into overdrive Monday night and Tuesday after Democratic politicians, their sycophants, and major outlets selectively edited President Donald Trump’s Nebraska rally remarks. They stripped out the context—the cost of the Iran war and the threat of a nuclear Iran—and circulated a clip that made it look as if Trump were inviting an attack on Los Angeles and San Diego.

Speaking Monday in Grand Island, Trump called elevated fuel prices temporary and “artificial,” and argued they were preferable to an unchecked nuclear Iran. “It’s a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe,” he said. Then, he restarted: “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, and it’s going to be over with very soon.”

Gavin Newsom posted the truncated clip and wrote: “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. He is deranged and dangerous.”

LA Mayor Karen Bass called it an attempt to “encourage attacks on American lives.” Mayor Todd Gloria said San Diego was not “collateral damage.” 

The Los Angeles Times headlined the remark as Trump suggesting Iran be allowed to “take out” the two cities. TMZ ran the same selectively edited clip, framing the line as an invitation for Iran to hit Los Angeles and San Diego while leaving out that he was calling higher gas prices a “small price to pay” to stop a nuclear Iran from hitting an American city.

Trump suggests letting Iran 'take out' Los Angeles and San Diego at campaign rallyhttps://t.co/2pkkOAR8MR

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) October 6, 2026

The White House Rapid Response account replied to that Times post: “No, he didn’t, you buffoons.” Trump “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.”

 Steven Cheung called the “media freakout” “not rooted in reality” and wrote that Trump “was clearly stating U.S. cities would have been threatened if a nuclear Iran hadn’t been stopped.” 

Even CNN’s Daniel Dale rejected the paraphrase, posting that it was not a correct rendering and that Trump has repeatedly argued the cost of the war is a small price compared with what an unchecked Iran could do. 

Steven Crowder put it more bluntly: “Deranged and dangerous is exactly what you call a governor who hears a comment about gas prices and tells millions of people the president wants them bombed, instead.”

"Deranged and dangerous" is exactly what you call a governor who hears a comment about gas prices and tells millions of people the president wants them bombed, instead. https://t.co/9oOZY3MnRY

— Steven Crowder (@scrowder) October 6, 2026

Between the Los Angeles Times headline, the TMZ clip, and Newsom’s post, the lesson is the same: you don’t hate the media enough. This is not a misunderstanding from the editorial board. It is the Fake News business model. 

A full sentence about pump prices and a nuclear threat does not move midterm voters. A six-word clip that sounds like the president inviting Iran to wipe out two California cities does. Selective editing, a loaded headline, and a governor’s post then reinforce the narrative until the distortion is the story and the transcript is the correction nobody leads with. 

The point is not to establish what was said. It is to fix a perception: Trump as a threat to Californians, just in time to sway how people vote. The price argument they omitted sits on top of a supply problem California Democrats designed and the LA Times has failed to accurately expose. 

Phillips 66 shut its Los Angeles-area refinery in late 2025, and Valero closed Benicia in April 2026, removing roughly 17% of in-state refining capacity. The California Globe has tracked California’s energy decimation for years: Nevada creating a fuel-resiliency panel as the exits loomed; USC’s Michael Mische warning that the shutdowns could push gasoline toward $8.43 a gallon, only then to be smeared by Newsom instead of answered. Marathon warned the governor that new CARB rules could be a death knell for what remains; and Arizona and Nevada bracing for the spillover. 

The Globe has accurately exposed the exodus as a  threat to national security, not a White House plot.

Newsom has spent the war blaming Trump for the pump sticker shock. What Monday’s clip left out is that Trump was talking about those prices as the political cost of a war he says is meant to keep a nuclear Iran from ever reaching an American city. The transcript, the White House rebuttal, and CNN’s correction all point the same direction. The outrage that followed did not.