California Gov. Gavin Newsom is doing more than firing back at Donald Trump after the president’s extraordinary remarks about Los Angeles and San Diego.
He’s ordering California’s threat-assessment operation to pay attention.
Newsom announced Tuesday that he has directed the State Threat Assessment Center to actively monitor the situation following Trump’s remarks at a campaign rally in Nebraska.
“Donald Trump’s remarks were dangerous — if not treasonous — putting a target on two of our biggest cities and one of America’s largest naval hubs,” Newsom said.
Then came the action.
“I am directing the State Threat Assessment Center to actively monitor the situation in the event that foreign actors interpret the President’s remarks as an invitation to target California.”
That is an extraordinary response to an extraordinary moment.
Trump was speaking Monday in Grand Island, Nebraska, while defending the ongoing war with Iran and addressing the higher prices Americans have faced during the conflict.
“It’s a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe,” Trump told the crowd.
Then his remarks took a startling turn.
“They can take out a city,” Trump said. “Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego.”
Members of the crowd could be heard cheering and applauding.
The comments immediately exploded into a political controversy, particularly in California.
Newsom initially called Trump “deranged and dangerous,” while Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass warned that the president’s words could potentially compromise the city’s safety.
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria was equally blunt.
“San Diego is not collateral damage,” Gloria said. “We are not expendable.”
And there is an important national-security dimension to the controversy.
San Diego is one of America’s most important military hubs, home to Naval Base San Diego and a massive Navy presence. That makes Newsom’s reference to “one of America’s largest naval hubs” particularly significant.
The White House, however, strongly disputes the interpretation that Trump was inviting Iran to attack American cities.
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said Trump was arguing that American cities could have been threatened if Iran had been allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon — and that Trump’s military actions were intended to prevent exactly that scenario.
That context matters.
But so do the president’s actual words.
“Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego” is now on tape, and California’s governor clearly believes the language was serious enough that it cannot simply be dismissed as another Trump rally riff.
Newsom’s response also moves this story beyond the usual cycle of political outrage.
He isn’t merely posting another insult at Trump or issuing another press statement.
He has directed California’s threat-assessment apparatus to actively monitor the situation in case foreign actors interpret the president’s remarks in a way that could create a security concern for the state.
Whether such a threat ever materializes is an entirely different question.
But the fact that a sitting governor believes he needs his state’s threat center watching for one after remarks made by the sitting president is remarkable enough on its own.
Trump wanted to make the case that his Iran war is keeping Americans safe.
Instead, the governor of America’s most populous state is now taking security precautions because of the words Trump chose to make that case.
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