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Tuesday, October 6, 2026
“They could take out a city. Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego.” That was President Donald Trump telling a Nebraska crowd that Iran taking out American cities would be “a very small price to pay” during a Monday night rally. Three hours earlier, he posted a slur at Annie Andrews, a pediatrician running for Senate in South Carolina, repeatedly calling her “Trannie Annie ”in a Truth Social post. Trump called for the New York Times to be “arrested” after Shawn McGreesh accurately reported on empty seats at a Trump rally. He told a CNN reporter, “your whole outfit is fake, and so are you,” barred Politico from Air Force One, and called a Fox News host “another loser.” It was a big day. Only MS NOW’s Ali Vitali has reported on the slur so far. In other news, the price of diesel in farm country is six dollars, and Trump’s own senators are blaming his war for it while he blames Ukraine. The taxpayer-funded pro-Trump ads got pulled hours after Vance defended them, and Abdul El-Sayed’s Fox News interview ran all night there as a grilling and on MS NOW this morning as a masterclass.
01. OFF THE RAILS: Trump ‘Offers’ Iran Two American Cities and Slurs a Senate Candidate
[Gaining Traction]. Trump’s erratic closing argument went from sharing a senator’s phone number to saying Iran taking out American cities would be “worth it.”
Trump insisted the price of fuel is nothing compared with the war. “With the war, it’s just artificial. It’s a little bit high. It’s a small price to pay,” he said Monday night to a Grand Island, Nebraska rally crowd who laughed when he kept going. “Let them take out Los Angeles, let them take out San Diego. This is a very small price to pay.” Diesel is currently over six dollars a gallon in Nebraska.
Just three hours earlier, the president posted an ugly dig on Truth Social targeting Democratic Senate candidate Annie Andrews: “Annie ‘Trannie’ Andrews is running against our wonderful Darline Graham for the Senate in South Carolina.” Trump used the slur twice more and closed with “Trannie is not for South Carolina.” Andrews is not transgender.
Trump called for the New York Times to be “arrested” over a report that his Ohio arena had empty seats. CNN’s Kristen Holmes asked Trump about his flagging approval among Latino voters; the president blustered: “Your whole outfit is fake, and so are you.” The White House kept Politico off Air Force One, and Fox News’s Jessica Tarlov was called “another loser” by Trump from the rally stage.
Morning Joe opened on Trump’s cities line at 6 and was discussing it an hour later at 7. Joe Scarborough asked what other president since the Civil War had “called for the destruction of entire cities.” Willie Geist interpreted Trump’s “joke” as “Those are lefties, so let them bomb LA and San Diego. We got to protect Omaha.” CNN’s John Berman let others argue about what the president said and meant, before adding, “Sometimes the syntax is garbled.”
TAKEAWAY: Guess which network has ignored Trump’s comments about taking out Los Angeles and San Diego? Given Fox News's outsized influence, particularly within the Republican base, until this story makes the rundowns, it will be limited in impact. Is that due to Trump’s attacking the network? Probably not, but it’s an entirely fair question to ask.
02. Trump’s Six-Dollar Diesel Problem Gets Worse After He Calls It a Small Price to Pay for the War
[Gaining Traction]. The cost of the Iran war is killing the GOP in red-state polls. Today, farm country doesn’t seem to think that Trump “feels their pain.”
A gallon of diesel costs a record-high $6 in Grand Island, Nebraska. Trump’s explanation for the high price to the very farmers paying it is that not only will prices go down, but that the Iran war is worth it.
He insisted gas would be under $1.85 a gallon very soon, and bizarrely claimed he’d driven past a station in Iowa charging under two dollars. The average in Iowa is $4.11. CNN’s Jeff Zeleny, who grew up in Nebraska, reported “tepid applause” when Trump said the war would end soon and prices would tumble.
Trump keeps insisting the problem is refineries, that Ukraine keeps hitting Russia’s and there aren’t enough of them, which is the version Breitbart put in a headline. Even Republicans who went on CNN said it’s the Iran war. Senator Rick Scott told Jake Tapper that “the war in Iran has caused gas and diesel prices to go up” and that he’s “proud of what the president’s done” anyway.
Audie Cornish read GasBuddy's take on the air, that the order "doesn't add a single gallon of supply." Matt Egan put the savings at about 60 cents a gallon in states that match the federal tax holiday, and a trucking operator told him it was "more of a band aid than it is a long term solution."
TAKEAWAY: Gas prices are the single biggest issue going into the midterms. Trump’s rationalization that they’re an acceptable “price to pay” for a deeply unpopular Iran war looks like the clearest sign that Republicans are about to get wiped out in the midterms.
03. El-Sayed as the Democrats’ Liability Gets Tested After He Takes Hostile Questions on Camera
[Gaining Traction]. Obama campaigning with El-Sayed in Michigan was yesterday’s news. Today the networks watched him take hostile questions and couldn’t agree on what they saw.
Abdul El-Sayed went on Martha MacCallum‘s show Monday afternoon, and Fox News kept playing it into the night. Laura Ingraham ran his answer about the British health service, and a Fox News analyst on Hannity said he looked like “a worm in a rainstorm.” Byron York told Fox & Friends this morning that he “just wouldn’t answer” questions about Hasan Piker or the Muslim Brotherhood, and Lawrence Jones, an hour later, went with “He lies so much. It’s incredible.” Trump had his own review from the Nebraska stage. The network let “this guy talk, talk, talk,” he said, and why were “they” putting people like him “on our television networks.”
Joe Scarborough played the clip on Morning Joe and praised El-Sayed for telling MacCallum, “No offense, Martha,” but he was there for her viewers. Scarborough called that “a pretty brilliant approach.” The Morning Joe host explained that El-Sayed disagrees with Jesse Watters and goes on with him anyway because that’s where the votes are, which is what Reagan did with the John Birch Society in 1966: he took their votes and told them he wasn’t changing his views to get them.
TAKEAWAY: Fox & Friends ran multiple clips of the interview, each featuring El-Sayed reminding viewers that he was running on the high cost of living and the price of gas. Repeated efforts to tie him to Piker might work on some viewers, but the cost of gas will probably resonate more.
“I vehemently disagree with President Trump’s comments. America must stand up to Iran and defend our interests, but the first responsibility of our Commander in Chief is to protect the American people and our homeland.”
That’s Republican Congressional candidate Jim Desmond reacting to Trump’s rally comments suggesting Iran taking out Los Angeles and San Diego would be “worth it.”
“As a Navy veteran, I served to protect Americans, not write off American cities as an acceptable price of war,” he continued. “Our job is to keep Americans safe, stand up to our enemies, and make sure a threat like that never becomes reality. No American city is expendable, and no American family should ever be treated as collateral damage.”
It’s still early, but Desmond is the lone Republican we could find who condemns Trump’s remarkably condemnable comments about taking out US cities.
Roger Marshall’s Attack Ad Against Adam Hamilton Contains Unauthorized Images of Children: The campaign of incumbent Republican Senator Marshall is under fire after an ad attacking his Democratic rival contains unauthorized images of children at a religious camp. (Kansas Reflector)
Ex-House Speaker and Admitted Child Molester Dennis Hastert Gets Glowing Memorials: Hastert became House Speaker following the controversial stints of Newt Gingrich and Bob Livingston, who came before him. He later served time for a hush money scheme surrounding sexual assault of kids he admitted to. Both CBS News and Fox News gave him rather kind obituaries, though CBS News deleted the tweet. (Yahoo! / Yahoo!)
Gov. Hochul Declares a Measles Emergency as the US Posts Worst Year Since 1991: New York’s governor declared a state disaster emergency Monday over a rise in rural Measles cases. Pennsylvania has passed 1,000 cases this year, and the national count is near 3,900. (New York Times)
Based on transcripts from the 6 and 7 a.m. hours of Fox & Friends, CNN This Morning, News Central, and Morning Joe.
On Monday’s “Takeaway,” I asked whether Trump was “losing it” or just “fucking around.” By Monday night, he offered Iran “take out” Los Angeles and San Diego to a rally crowd who laughed. Three hours later, he posted an anti-trans slur directed at a children’s doctor. Monday’s question still holds, but I think that both things can be true. Trump is clearly joking around and trying to say or do anything that moves the news cycle, but he’s doing so because he’s clearly losing it. And by “it” I don’t mean cognitive decline (though one can make that argument); I mean the news narratives and midterm elections. The crazier and over-the-top Trump sounds, the more coverage goes towards those comments and less towards the high price of gas, diesel, the rising cost of living and a deeply unpopular and disastrous Iran war. At least he’s tacitly admitting federally funded campaign ads are a no-no, and he’s now pledged to pay for them with his own campaign dollars, but is that an admission of guilt? The ads already ran, and this might be the beginning, not the end, of a new news cycle surrounding them.
The Morning Frame tracks which political stories are spreading, which are stalling, and how you can tell the difference. Powered by Narrative Prism.
“Trannie” is not a slur. It may be an incorrect label, as she may not be transgender. But if she is, that’s fine too.