Did Trump really say Iran could “take out” Los Angeles?

Justin Webb (0:00)

Hello, it's Justin here, and hello to all the new listeners to Americast. There are quite a few of you at the moment, so if you do enjoy what you hear, please do consider subscribing to the podcast. That way, you will never miss an episode. Now, on with this one.

Sumi Somaskanda (0:14)

Two big controversies for the Trump administration this week. First, what exactly did Donald Trump mean when he said this about the war in Iran and two cities on America's west coast?

Anthony Zurcher (0:25)

Let him take out Los Angeles, let him take out San Diego.

SPEAKER_4 (0:29)

That's, this is a very small price to pay and it's going to be over with very soon.

SPEAKER_5 (0:34)

It's essentially almost over with.

Sumi Somaskanda (0:36)

Also, his Defence Secretary, Pete Hegseth, caused controversy again with more changes at the Pentagon as he tries to get rid of what he calls DEI and woke agendas at the Department of Defence. But is his position increasingly under fire, both from Democrats and Republicans?

Welcome to Americast.

Anthony Zurcher (0:59)

Americast from BBC News.

SPEAKER_6 (1:01)

Whatever you want to talk about, Abdul, keep my wife's name the hell out of your mouth because she's way out of your league.

SPEAKER_5 (1:07)

The tide is coming and this time we intend to win it all.

SPEAKER_7 (1:14)

He doesn't want to do the job.

He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenceless flying palace gifted by the emir of Qatar. When I'm not around, you're going to be broke.

SPEAKER_6 (1:27)

There's not going to be anybody to report on.

SPEAKER_4 (1:29)

Nobody gives a damn about anybody else.

Anthony Zurcher (1:37)

Hello, it's Anthony here in the Washington Bureau of BBC News.

Sumi Somaskanda (1:41)

And it's Sumi sitting next to Anthony right here. Anthony, I think it's a good time to catch up on a speech that a lot of people are still talking about here in Washington, which is the Defence Secretary, Pete Hegseth's State of the Force speech. It's worth saying that's unusual in itself. There isn't normally a Defence Secretary giving a State of the Force, like a State of the Union speech.

But this is now the second year that the Defence Secretary has done this. And he used this opportunity to announce a few initiatives, also confirming that he had fired 20% of the top military leadership, a number of new policies. But let's talk about the speech after we listen to a clip. And we should say that this clip we're about to play does contain some offensive language.

SPEAKER_4 (2:22)

The number crunchers say we fired 10% of the generals and admirals across the force. And that number sounds about right. And I know because I directed it that we've also reduced the overall number of general officer slots by an additional 10%.

So yes, 20% reduction across the board. Now the media calls that a purge. I call it accountability and long overdue. And frankly, the bare minimum. The only focus, as you know, in your formations, should be training, readiness, accountability, discipline and lethality. And when you pursue those things, you don't have to walk on eggshells. No more social engineering, no more weaponized IG policies. The complainers, the ideologues and the poor performers are no longer in the driver's seat. No more silly PowerPoint trainings or drag queen shows. No more diversity quotas. No more gender pronouns. No more identity months. Only the warrior ethos. No fatties, no trannies, no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no radicals. Just warriors.

Just tough, ready, committed troops. The War Department, as you know, is colorblind, gender neutral, and merit based.

Or as the president likes to say to me, Pete, central casting. The ideological clowns are out, the patriotic cowboys are in, with testosterone testing on top.

Anthony Zurcher (3:54)

Testosterone testing on top. That sounded like a typical Hegseth speech, including that offensive slur that he's used targeting transgender people.

It follows a policy that he has implemented, that is trying to remove anyone who identifies as transgender from the US military. That was an executive order that Donald Trump signed. Hegseth is following through on that, but I think it just underscores the point of how this Secretary of Defense, how this administration views transgender people and the hostility that they take towards them.

Sumi Somaskanda (4:31)

Yeah. This speech really underlined the Defense Secretary's view on masculinity and that warrior ethos that he talks about. It was back in July that he said that the military would start screening for low testosterone and offer testosterone replacement therapy, TRT as it's called, as a way to help troops operate, as he called it back then, at their absolute best.