White House Rebukes Media Over Trump Iran Remarks

The White House defended President Donald Trump’s remarks at a Nebraska rally, arguing that his comments about Iran being able to “take out” Los Angeles and San Diego referred to the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran, not an invitation for an attack. Trump had described the economic costs of the conflict with Iran as a small price to pay to prevent that threat. The remarks drew condemnation from California officials and criticism in news coverage, while CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale also disputed a viral paraphrase of Trump’s comments. White House communications director Steven Cheung called the coverage a “media freakout” and said the United States was safer because Iran had been stopped from gaining that capability.