According to liberals, President Trump recently said that Iran bombing Los Angeles and San Diego, California, would be a small price to pay, but even CNN’s resident fact-checker and Trump hater Daniel Dale said that wasn’t true. However, CNN has not had Dale on air to discuss the matter, nor has CNN.com published an article by him explaining what Trump actually meant.
At 8:32 a.m. Eastern on Tuesday, Dale posted on X:
This isn’t a direct quote from Trump, and I very much don’t think it’s a correct paraphrase. Trump has repeatedly argued that the consequences of the war, like higher gas prices, are a small price to pay compared to what an unchecked Iran could allegedly do. Last night, in especially rambling and incomplete fashion, he 1) claimed high prices are temporary and suggested they’re “artificial”; 2) contrasted that to the damage of Iran supposedly taking out a city; 3) and then, in especially confusing style, repeated his old point that “this,” as in the consequences of the war, is a small price to pay to avoid something like a a city being wiped out.
It’s Trump’s fault you kinda have to be steeped in TrumpRallySpeak to know what he was saying last night, and of course you can say it’s inappropriate regardless for the president to casually float the possibility of a city being wiped out, but the context exists and is important.
This isn’t a direct quote from Trump, and I very much don’t think it’s a correct paraphrase. Trump has repeatedly argued that the consequences of the war, like higher gas prices, are a small price to pay compared to what an unchecked Iran could allegedly do. Last night, in especially rambling and incomplete fashion, he 1) claimed high prices are temporary and suggested they’re “artificial”; 2) contrasted that to the damage of Iran supposedly taking out a city; 3) and then, in especially confusing style, repeated his old point that “this,” as in the consequences of the war, is a small price to pay to avoid something like a a city being wiped out. It’s Trump’s fault you kinda have to be steeped in TrumpRallySpeak to know what he was saying last night, and of course you can say it’s inappropriate regardless for the president to casually float the possibility of a city being wiped out, but the context exists and is important.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) October 6, 2026
According to CNN, Dale is a fact-checker, which means it views him as an objective authority on matters of truth in a way it doesn’t view someone like Scott Jennings. Yet, from the time Dale sent out his post through 2 p.m on Wednesday, CNN has not had Dale on air to talk about Trump’s remarks despite 16 different shows discussing the matter in some form. The last time Dale was on the air was September 30.
Similarly, cnn.com has not published anything by Dale since October 3.
It is nice that Dale was able to concede on social media that the left was taking Trump out of context, but it is likely that a healthy portion of the people who saw Dale’s X post were conservatives using it as proof that the left’s interpretation of events was incorrect. Appearing on CNN and cnn.com would not only allow Dale to reach more people; those people would be more liberal and therefore more likely to need to see Dale wander outside his anti-Trump lane, if even only for a brief moment.
