Donald Trump’s extraordinary implication that Iran could “take out” Los Angeles and San Diego have sparked condemnation across the political spectrum. As residents of the two major west coast cities awoke on Tuesday to another sweltering day in a record-breaking heatwave, the president’s comments sent blood boiling even higher.

Jessica, a 28-year-old Los Angeles hair stylist, was scrolling through social media early on Tuesday morning and was shocked to see that Trump had just suggested Iran should decimate her home town.

For Jessica, who declined to be identified by her full name because she fears for the safety of her Mexican-born parents, the comments marked a new low for a president who had already spent years attacking immigrant families like hers.

“I was just thinking what the fuck is wrong with him?” she said while waiting for a Waymo outside grocery store in LA’s Koreatown neighborhood. “He hates us. He hates LA. He hates any Democratic state ... It’s just a really sad situation.”

In southern California, Trump’s unprecedented musing before a cheering crowd at a Nebraska rally on Monday night – that perhaps a foreign power should decimate two of the country’s best-known cities – has been met with reactions ranging from deep hostility to dismissive incredulity. Gavin Newsom, the state’s governor, called the remarks “dangerous – if not treasonous – putting a target on two of our biggest cities and one of America’s largest naval hubs”.

Perhaps most of all, California residents see it as a sign of the president’s fixation on tearing down west coast progressivism and diversity, most visibly through the deployment of national guard troops in Los Angeles during a series of brutal ICE raids in 2025.

During a bustling lunch service at Grand Central Market, a food hall in downtown LA, tourists and residents milled between taco stands and dumpling stalls. Many had yet to hear of the president’s threats, until asked by a reporter. One of those who had was Jens Midthun, a downtown resident who often stops at the market for coffee.

“Trump has tried to paint Los Angeles as a dystopia despite it being a wonderful place,” said Midthun, sipping an iced coffee under a shaded outdoor table as the temperature approached the triple digits. (Midthun serves as the president of the downtown LA neighborhood council, but was speaking only on behalf of himself.)

“It reminded me that the president is obsessed with us – obsessed with California, obsessed with Los Angeles,” Midthun said. “We try not to think about him and yet, here he is with Los Angeles’s name right there in his mouth.”

Trump’s remarks have sparked a particularly strong reaction in San Diego, which is home to roughly a quarter-million veterans and has one of the largest concentrations of military personnel in the US.

“His statement was so irrational, it’s hard to explain exactly what he was saying, but it sounded like he was willing to give us up,” said Gil Field, communications director for San Diego Veterans for Peace, a group that opposes the war. “It’s horrible and we’re horrified.”

The military supports nearly 357,000 local jobs in the region, representing $61.3bn of San Diego county’s economy, according to a report released last year. Defense spending accounts for 22% of San Diego’s gross regional product and the area is home to multiple naval bases and Marine Corps stations, with one out of four active-duty marines based in San Diego.

“This is a military town, so you’ve got bipartisan objections to his comments,” said Field, who noted that there were always concerns that San Diego could be targeted in war due to the heavy military presence. “So for him to say this about San Diego is particularly galling. He did San Diego a disservice.”

Jim Desmond, a Republican naval veteran running for a congressional seat in San Diego, also offered a pointed rebuke.

“I served to protect Americans, not write off American cities as an acceptable price of war. Our job is to keep Americans safe, stand up to our enemies, and make sure a threat like that never becomes reality,” Desmond said on X. “No American city is expendable, and no American family should ever be treated as collateral damage.”

Back in Los Angeles, far from the negative fantasies that Trump spins in his speeches, Midthun sees an economic powerhouse and vibrant cultural center sandwiched between the beach and the mountains, and enriched by some of the largest diaspora communities from across the world – South Korea, Mexico, El Salvador, Armenia and even Iran.

“The president keeps talking about us, and talking about us,” Midthun said. “He’s got a lot of issues to solve. He should work on those issues instead of obsessing over the beautiful, great people of Los Angeles.”