Trump denies urging Iran to bomb California, says remarks misrepresented

Trump Denies Urging Iran to Bomb California — Despite Repeated Comments

Publication Date: 2026-10-08

Either Donald Trump is playing dumb with the American people, or there actually is something wrong with him.

The president turned to Truth Social on Thursday to dispel fears surrounding his recent taunts to Iran, insisting via a social media post that he had not invited "the enemy to bomb San Diego and Los Angeles."

But he did. Three times.

• Monday, Nebraska rally: During a midterm campaign rally in Grand Island, Trump said: "They can take out a city. Let them take out Los Angeles; let them take out San Diego."
• Wednesday, Texas rally: Trump told another crowd: "I said it the other day, let them hit a missile into San Diego or Los Angeles."
• Wednesday, with reporters: Speaking to journalists that same night, Trump said: "Let's see what would happen if Iran ever did anything to Los Angeles or San Diego. I'm talking about through missiles."

Writing on his social media platform hours later, Trump claimed reports of his own words were the result of "fake and artificial news." He argued the comments were made in relation to the "temporary increase in the price of Gasoline," which he suggested was "a small price to pay for Iran not having a Nuclear Weapon."

"And, if you want to see a big price, can you imagine what it would be like if they bombed San Diego and/or Los Angeles? All I was doing was making a comparison between paying a little more, for a short time, for Gasoline, versus the bombing of our Major Cities," Trump wrote, adding that "everybody knew that."

If Trump actually meant to discuss the country's military efforts and their toll on oil prices, his attempts were so bizarre that their sole communicative success was in denigrating the office of the president.

Trump Chief of Staff's Daughter Linked to Pro-Russia Balkan Territory

Yet another person with close ties to Donald Trump's White House has been linked to a pro-Russia Balkan regime.

Katie Wiles, daughter of Trump's chief of staff Susie Wiles, works for a political lobbying firm that has a $35,000-per-month contract to represent Republika Srpska, a small self-governing territory in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She traveled there as recently as August.

A photograph circulated by Evi Kokalari, a conservative Albanian American activist, showed the younger Wiles wielding a rifle and standing next to Željko Budimir, the interior minister of Republika Srpska. The image appeared to have been initially posted to Wiles's Instagram story with the caption "mostly work + some serious fun!"

Continental Strategy, Wiles's employer, confirmed to CBS that she traveled to Republika Srpska in August but said she has not lobbied the U.S. government on its behalf. As of Thursday afternoon, Wiles's page on her company's website was inaccessible.

This news comes as MAGA world has turned its ire on two of the president's closest advisers, Chris LaCivita and James Blair, who traveled to the Balkans to assist in that territory's elections. The two men were paid hundreds of thousands of dollars each to provide counsel on voting issues to the government, which is led by far-right nationalists. Republika Srpska is closely aligned with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Both LaCivita and Blair are connected to Susie Wiles. Trump tried to distance himself from his strategists, claiming they were "outside consultants," but his chief of staff's child may be harder to disown.

Trump Awards National Medals to Six Tech CEOs — All Major Donors

On Thursday afternoon, President Trump awarded national medals for advancements in technology and science to six CEOs and founders:

• Sergey Brin (Google co-founder)
• Jensen Huang (NVIDIA CEO)
• Lisa Su (Advanced Micro Devices CEO)
• Michael Dell (Dell Technologies founder)
• Satya Nadella (Microsoft CEO)
• Elon Musk (SpaceX and Tesla CEO)

These six awardees collectively donated at least $6 billion to Trump's campaign, his inauguration fund, his White House ballroom, pro-Trump super PACs, and other Republican initiatives aligned with Trump's agenda, a New Republic analysis found.

Key Donations by Awardee

| Individual | Notable Contributions | |---|---| | Sergey Brin | Alphabet donated $22 billion to the Trust for the National Mall for Trump's ballroom; $1 million to inauguration fund; $500,000 to RNC; $100 million+ to oppose California wealth tax | | Jensen Huang | Unspecified amount to White House ballroom; attended $1 million-per-plate Mar-a-Lago dinner; NVIDIA pledged $1 billion to Trump's Genesis Mission AI project | | Lisa Su | AMD donated $1 million to MAGA Inc.; pledged 15% of China processor sales revenue to Trump administration | | Elon Musk | $277 million directly to Trump and Republican campaigns in 2024; helped form America PAC; ran $1 million election "lottery" scheme | | Michael Dell | $6.25 billion to Trump's "Trump accounts" program for children | | Satya Nadella | Microsoft contributed $1 million to Trump's inauguration fund; undisclosed amount to White House ballroom |

Trump has disclosed millions in stock trades in the companies run by all six individuals.

Trump Claims North Carolina Survived "One of the Great Water Hurricanes"

North Carolinians were blissfully unaware that they survived one of the "great water hurricanes" of all time — until Donald Trump said so at the White House summit for scientific achievement Thursday.

All hurricanes lash rain as a fundamental part of the storm system, but the president suggested Thursday that there was a difference between a cyclone and what he described as a "water hurricane."

"I will tell you personally, because I was involved, we had a hurricane — one of the great water hurricanes of all time — delivered more water than at any time that we can remember on record," Trump said in the midst of a speech intended to celebrate Elon Musk's SpaceX and Starlink technologies.

This is not the first time Trump has used the phrase. He previously pitched the idea during a presidential campaign stop in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, in October 2024, lamenting the role water played during Hurricane Helene — a Category 4 storm that ravaged the state and sparked Trump's interest in dismantling the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

"I must've been the first [to visit the area], I followed that storm right in," Trump said two years ago. "But I saw the devastation..."

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