President Donald Trump's latest midterm campaign rally has triggered alarm after he suggested a hypothetical Iranian attack wiping out two major Democratic-led California cities would be "a small price to pay" — remarks that former CNN correspondent Jim Acosta described as "dangerous and insane" and a sign that the president has descended into "desperation mode."

Speaking at a rally in Grand Island, Nebraska, this week, Trump sought to persuade voters that the significant inflation caused by his war with Iran was worth it. As he made his pitch, he jokingly suggested he would be fine if Iran attacked and wiped out Los Angeles and San Diego, two major West Coast cities in California led by Democrats, calling it a fair price to pay. The stakes of that pitch are amplified by the electoral calendar: midterm elections fall halfway through a president's term, and this one will decide every seat in the House of Representatives, roughly one-third of the Senate, and a number of governor's races.

"It's a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe," the president said. "They can take out a city. Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego. This is a very small price to pay, and it's going to be over very soon. It's essentially almost over with, and they might keep going a little long. You know, they always say they have a big threshold for pain. They need it."

Acosta, who served as CNN's chief White House correspondent before leaving the network in early 2025, appeared as a guest on the latest episode of the "Fast Politics" podcast, where host Molly Jong-Fast asked for his reaction to Trump's remarks.

"It sounds like we have a 25th Amendment crisis in this country," Acosta said. "He absolutely stepped in it big time... There are unhinged and deranged comments that he makes from time to time, [but] I mean, this is as bad as it gets. This is bottom-of-the-barrel stuff to say that, well, you know, we have to stop Iran from having a nuclear weapon, or else, you know, they could take out LA and San Diego. Why is he singling out these two cities, and why is he going after California? It's always, you know, he always goes after blue states. And, you know, to suggest, to fantasize about two massive American cities, any American city, being taken out by a nuclear weapon, to me, is just, it's as dangerous and insane as it gets."

Acosta's reference pointed to the 25th Amendment, ratified in 1967 in the aftermath of President John F. Kennedy's assassination, which allows the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet to declare a president unable to discharge the powers and duties of the office, with the vice president then serving as acting president.

Acosta went on to argue that Trump and the GOP's attempts at "monkeying" around with supply chains and gas taxes in a scramble to lower gas prices before the midterm elections will not be able to "bail out" in time. He added that he has "seen [Trump] in this mode before," with the president and the people around him getting "frantic."

"They go into desperation mode, and you can see it at these rallies," Acosta explained. "It's why he is coming unglued. He sees what is [coming]... It's like that giant wave in [the film] Interstellar that's way off in the distance, and looks like a planet killer, and he sees that Interstellar wave coming, and he is so freaked out that they're trying to get the hell out of there in time. And I'm telling you, this is just the beginning of the desperation stage. These next four weeks are gonna be one hell of a ride because he knows... if it's as bad as it sounds right now, where they lose the House, they lose the Senate, the polls are correct, they lose these important governor's races, and, like Florida and Texas, that's a historic blowout. We've never seen a midterm blowout like the one that is taking shape right now."

Whether the scenario Acosta describes materializes will be settled at the ballot box in roughly four weeks, when the House, Senate, and governor's races he referenced are all on the line.

The report was originally published by Alternet.