Leaders in California are firing back after Donald Trump suggested at a campaign rally on Monday that he would allow Iran to “take out” Los Angeles or San Diego, claiming it would be a small price to pay.

At a rally in Nebraska, Trump told supporters that he hoped to see a “tremendous victory” in the November midterm elections. He then suggested high prices due to the war with Iran were a “small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe”.

“They can take out a city. Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego,” Trump added as the crowd cheered. “This is a very small price to pay, and it’s gonna be over with very soon.”

California governor Gavin Newsom denounced Trump as “deranged and dangerous” over his comment, adding in a post on Twitter, “After sending the National Guard and Marines to occupy California, Donald Trump is now saying our foreign enemies should ‘take out’ Los Angeles and San Diego.”

Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass condemned Trump’s “irresponsible threats” that “could potentially compromise” the safety of America’s second-largest city, home to the US Space Force’s space system command headquarters and the Los Angeles Air Force Base.

“The role of a president is to protect the country, not to actively threaten it and encourage attacks on American lives,”  Bass added.

Todd Gloria, the mayor of San Diego, said his city was “not collateral damage” in Trump’s war with Iran.

“We are not expendable. And we are never a “small price to pay,” he wrote on Twitter. “Keep our city out of your reckless war talk.”

San Diego, the eighth-largest city in the United States, is home to critical US military infrastructure, including Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, where 70,000 civilians and active-duty service members live and work, Naval Base San Diego, the home port of the US Navy’s Pacific Fleet, and Naval Amphibious Base Coronado, the main training ground for Navy SEALs on the West Coast.