Ken Calvert Young Kim Iran War California

Ken Calvert and Young Kim Are Fighting Over Who Is More Loyal to Trump. When He Said 'Let 'Em Take Out Los Angeles,' Both Went Quiet.

Calvert calls Kim a 'Trump-traitor.' But when Trump told a Nebraska rally 'let 'em take out Los Angeles, let 'em take out San Diego,' RealClearPolitics reports both Southern California Republicans 'carefully avoided' it. Both cheered the war in March and voted to keep it going in September.

MAGA Report Cards · Oct 08, 2026

Ken Calvert and Young Kim Are Fighting Over Who Is More Loyal to Trump. When He Said 'Let 'Em Take Out Los Angeles,' Both Went Quiet. — Photo: Charlie Riedel / Associated Press, via the San Francisco Chronicle

Ken Calvert and Young Kim have spent this year arguing over which of them is closer to Donald Trump. This week, Trump gave them something real to argue about. On Monday night, he told a rally in Nebraska, "Let 'em take out Los Angeles, let 'em take out San Diego." Both of them are running in Southern California.

Neither one would touch it.

What Trump said

On October 5, 2026, in Grand Island, Nebraska, Trump was defending his war with Iran and the high gas prices that came with it. The San Francisco Chronicle reported his words:

"It's a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe. They can take out a city. Let 'em take out Los Angeles, let 'em take out San Diego. That's — this is a very small price to pay."

The crowd cheered. The White House says Trump was warning about what a nuclear Iran could have done, not inviting an attack, and FactCheck.org agreed that this is the more likely reading. But Los Angeles and San Diego heard themselves named as "a very small price to pay," and California's leaders said so. Governor Gavin Newsom called the remarks "dangerous — if not treasonous." The bipartisan U.S. Conference of Mayors said Trump had "crossed a line that no president should ever approach."

Two Republicans fighting over Trump, silent about Trump

The race for California's new 40th District, in eastern Orange County and western Riverside County, is a fight between two sitting Republicans. Redistricting turned Calvert's old seat into a Democratic one, so he moved over to run against Kim. RealClearPolitics calls it "one of the nastiest campaigns in the country, with both sides fighting over who is more loyal to Trump."

How nasty? Calvert has called Kim a "backstabbing RINO" and a "Trump-traitor." A pro-Calvert super PAC spent $2.9 million on primary ads painting her as a liberal who hates Trump. Then the same PAC mailed Democratic voters flyers showing a smiling Kim under the words "Young Kim, 100% with Trump." Kim hit back with an ad calling Calvert a "sleazebag."

They will say anything about each other and Trump. But when Trump talked about Iran taking out Los Angeles and San Diego, RealClearPolitics reports:

For all their fighting over Trump, both Calvert and Kim carefully avoided the furor over his Iran comments early this week, even as the remarks set off a raging debate on social media and in campaigns across the state.

The comments landed, RCP added, "just as most California voters began receiving their mail-in ballots."

Another Republican found the words

It isn't hard to say. Jim Desmond, the Republican running in the 48th District, had broken with Trump by Tuesday morning. He said he "vehemently" disagreed, and wrote:

"As a Navy veteran, I served to protect Americans, not write off American cities as an acceptable price of war."

Desmond has backed this war too. This spring he defended it in a TV interview with "No pain, no gain" as gas prices climbed. He still managed one sentence for the people of Los Angeles and San Diego. Calvert and Kim, two sitting members of Congress from Southern California, didn't.

Trump tried to clean it up. They still said nothing.

Two days later, Trump tried to walk it back, and repeated it doing so. At a rally in San Antonio on Wednesday night, October 7, the Los Angeles Times reported, he told the crowd:

"You want to see a horror show? You want to see problems? Let them hit San Diego, let them hit Los Angeles."

Then he added, "We are not going to let that happen. We protect our cities. We protect our country." The Times wrote that his return to the subject "appeared aimed at tamping down the fallout" after two days in which the White House had been on the defensive.

But a walk-back that opens with "Let them hit San Diego" isn't much of one. Two days after his first riff, the president of the United States was back on a rally stage describing Iran hitting two American cities, and the crowd cheered again. California was still taking the first one seriously: the day before, Governor Newsom had opened the state's emergency operations center to assess potential threats. A commander in chief whose cities are a possible target doesn't keep bringing them up as a rally line.

San Diego wasn't comforted. Mayor Todd Gloria answered: "Seriously, again? How many times do we have to say it? San Diego is not a prop. San Diego is not a target."

A second round gave Calvert and Kim a second chance to say something. None of the coverage of the San Antonio rally, in the Times, The Hill or Forbes, reports a word from either of them.

They cheered this war from the start

Staying quiet now is easier because of what they said in March. When the war began, the Los Angeles Times reported that both rushed to back it.

Calvert, who chairs the House panel that writes the Pentagon's budget, wrote on X that Trump's decision "will protect America and our allies by eliminating the Iranian regime's ability to wage terror and threaten its enemies."

Kim, who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, reposted video of a pro-war rally in Los Angeles and wrote:

"So grateful for our President's decisive action & for our vibrant Iranian American community. From Southern California to Tehran, let freedom ring!"

The Times noted that polls showed the war was unpopular in its very first days. A CNN poll found nearly 6 in 10 Americans opposed it.

Seven months later, both of them still back it. On September 15, the House voted 220 to 204 on a resolution ordering the president to end the war. Calvert and Kim both voted no. That was the third time since June the House had voted to end the war, and the same day Congress's budget office put its cost at $38.1 billion, as we reported at the time.

Calvert's campaign has done well while it's been fought. Defense contractors sent him more than $200,000 in the first three months of 2026, while the war was being fought.

Trump only when it helps

Neither of them is shy about Trump when it suits them. Kim's campaign homepage promised in August that she would "Stand with President Trump to deliver a bold America First Agenda." Within weeks that line was gone. Calvert attacks her as disloyal to Trump while his allies mail Democrats flyers calling her "100% with Trump."

Both of them seem to treat Trump as a weapon to use on the other. Neither of them treats him as someone they're willing to correct, even when he names Los Angeles and San Diego in a riff about what's "a very small price to pay."

What the record shows

On October 5, Trump told a Nebraska rally, "Let 'em take out Los Angeles, let 'em take out San Diego," calling the war's costs "a very small price to pay." Ken Calvert and Young Kim, the two Republicans running for California's 40th District, have spent months fighting over who is more loyal to Trump, and RealClearPolitics reports both "carefully avoided" the remarks, while Republican Jim Desmond condemned them by the next morning. When Trump went back to the line in San Antonio two days later ("Let them hit San Diego, let them hit Los Angeles"), then added "We are not going to let that happen," neither of them was reported saying a word. Both backed the Iran war when it began in March, and on September 15 both voted against a resolution ordering Trump to end it, on the day Congress's budget office put its cost at $38.1 billion.