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Trump Makes Scathing Gesture After Question He Won’t Answer

The outspoken president was suddenly short on words.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly refused to answer questions about his shocking casual comment about the destruction of Los Angeles and San Diego.

Trump, 80, was discussing his war on Iran, which has led to sky-high oil prices, at a rally in Nebraska on Monday.

“Remember, with the war, it’s just artificial. It’s a little bit high,” Trump said of the high costs.

“It’s a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe,” he continued, before appearing to suggest that he would accept the destruction of the two U.S. cities. “They can take out a city—let ’em take, let ’em take out Los Angeles, let ’em take out San Diego. That’s—this is a very small price to pay,” Trump said, naming the two Democrat-led cities in California.

The comments immediately raised eyebrows. California Gov. Gavin Newsom posted on X shortly afterward, “Donald Trump is now saying our foreign enemies should ‘take out’ Los Angeles and San Diego. He is deranged and dangerous.”

The president was seemingly in no mood to expand on his comments at the White House on Tuesday, after returning from a speech in Maryland.

THE ENEMY WITHIN

Trump Offers Up Two U.S. Cities in Bonkers War Talk

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A female journalist asked him as he walked toward her, “Mr. President, what did you mean by your comments yesterday about San Diego and Los Angeles possibly being wiped out by Iran?”

Trump made a swatting gesture with his hand, and refused to answer the question.

Hours earlier on Tuesday, before he headed to Maryland, Trump also ignored reporters who asked him to explain the baffling comment.

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The White House has tried to dismiss the claim as a “hoax.” The Rapid Response X account shared footage of Trump avoiding the reporter’s question, adding, “Some whiny Fake News loser spent the entire press gaggle shouting at @POTUS about the ‘take out Los Angeles and San Diego’ hoax — which is so obviously a lie, even CNN debunked it. These people are sick.”

The post seemingly referred to CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale saying Trump had been paraphrased by the Kamala Harris-linked Headquarters account on X.

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Speaking on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360°, Kaitlan Collins said she and other White House reporters on Tuesday had “tried to ask the president to clarify those comments, or explain what he meant,” on three separate occasions.

“When you look at the transcript and the audio of what he said there, he obviously heard the questions,” Collins told Cooper, noting Trump “declined to answer them.”

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When asked for a comment, White House Communications Director Stephen Cheung sent the Daily Beast his earlier X post, which read, “The media freakout over President Trump’s comments is not rooted in reality. He was clearly stating U.S. cities would have been threatened if a nuclear Iran hadn’t been stopped. America is safer because of the President. Iran has no nuclear, no navy, no air force, and no money.”

Officials, however, aren’t convinced. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass slammed Trump on Tuesday’s 360°, saying she was “horrified” by them. She also called out the White House response.

“I mean, I heard what I heard, and so did the rest of the world. What does that say about the United States on the world stage, that the president would say, ‘If you want to take out the nation’s second-largest city, have at it,’” Bass told Cooper on CNN.

“I understand that that press deputy wanted to paint it that way, as though we did not hear what we heard. But I’m sorry to say that it is on tape, and the entire world heard it.”

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