California leaders are furious after the president suggested that losing the two cities is a “small price to pay.”

At a rally in Nebraska Tuesday night, President Trump told his supporters exactly what he thinks about the well-being of the American people.

Trump first said that the price of goods and services, which have gone up thanks to his ill-advised Iran war and tariff policies, were “just a little bit high. It’s a small price to pay for keeping the world safe—keeping our country safe.

“They can take out a city. Let them take, let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego. This is a very small price to pay,” Trump said. “And it’s going to be over with very soon. It’s essentially almost over with.”

Conservative activists have argued that Trump didn’t really mean that losing the two cities is a “small price to pay,” but that he was referring to high gas prices. In that generous interpretation, Trump was arguing that his war, which has killed scores of civilians in the Middle East and an estimated 23 U.S. soldiers, is preventing Iran from waging large scale attacks on American cities. But Iran’s targets during the war have been U.S. installations in the Middle East, and it wasn’t targeting American cities before the war either.

California leaders, however, have taken his words at face-value.

Advocating for the mass death of his own citizens?

  • SnoopSqueak@lemmy.today
    71·
    13 hours ago

    It was the result of arrogance and stupidity, not conspiratorial intent.

    I think the former serves the latter.

    Conservatives acted very suspiciously before and after 9/11. “We need a new Pearl Harbor,” they said in 2000, and got it the next year. They appointed people to the 9/11 commission who deliberately tried to change the report to be less thorough and less accurate. The commission was denied resources and information, and was given a short deadline.

    There is reason to believe Saudi Arabia was involved in planning the attacks, but the US went after Iraq instead, falsely claiming that Saddam Hussein was linked to al-Qaeda and had weapons of mass destruction.

    The US used 9/11 as justification for its “war on terror”, which included countless human rights violations including indefinite detention without charge and torture. The privacy-violating PATRIOT Act was introduced and extended repeatedly until 2020. War crimes have been covered up.

    I think the rich are willing and able to use every means at their disposal to retain their power. I think they influence the global narrative and provoke people to act against their own best interests. It’s not as simple as saying “Bush did 9/11,” but I think there was and still is conspiratorial intent.