En esta noticia
President Donald Trump’s remark Monday that Iran could “take out” Los Angeles and San Diego has drawn attention to whether Iran could reach California. A 2025 U.S. intelligence assessment found it had no missiles able to reach the U.S. mainland, though drones and cyber operations pose other risks.
Trump made the remark at a campaign rally in Grand Island, Nebraska, while discussing the ongoing war the United States and Israel launched against Iran on Feb. 28. “Let them take out Los Angeles, let them take out San Diego,” he said. Both cities host major military installations, including Naval Base San Diego and Los Angeles Air Force Base.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom called the remark “deranged and dangerous.” He ordered the State Threat Assessment Center, the state agency that tracks security risks, to watch for foreign actors who might take it as an invitation.
White House communications director Steven Cheung said Trump meant U.S. cities would have been at risk had a nuclear-armed Iran not been stopped.
Can Iran’s missiles strike California?
Iran’s ballistic missiles, rockets that arc high above the atmosphere before falling on a target, can reach U.S. bases in the Middle East, Israel and parts of Europe. After the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, Iran voluntarily set itself a range limit of about 1,240 miles, far short of the U.S. West Coast.
Reaching California would take an intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, a long-range weapon built to cross oceans. A 2025 report by the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s military intelligence arm, found Iran had none. It estimated Iran could field up to 60 ICBMs by 2035, but only if it made a deliberate push to build them.
Iran has said it wants more reach. On Sunday, army spokesman Brig. Gen. Mohammad Akraminia told Iran’s Fars News Agency, “During the war, we concluded that we definitely have to increase the range of our missiles, and we are currently carrying out this task.”
He tied the decision to U.S. forces operating farther from Iran’s coast, up to about 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) away.
Classified U.S. intelligence assessments from early May 2026 found Iran kept about 70% of its prewar missile stockpile and most of its mobile launchers, the trucks that carry and fire missiles, according to multiple news reports. Those weapons are built for regional targets, and the White House has disputed the portrayal.
On the nuclear side, International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said March 2, in the war’s first days, that the U.N. nuclear watchdog saw no structured program to build nuclear weapons in Iran.
What was the FBI warning about an Iran drone attack on California?
An FBI alert to police, made public in March, warned of an unverified tip. It said Iran allegedly wanted to launch drones, unmanned aircraft that can carry explosives, from a ship off the U.S. coast at unspecified California targets if the United States attacked Iran. The bureau said it had no details on timing, targets or perpetrators.
Then White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said then that no such threat existed. Newsom said the state saw no imminent danger but kept drones a priority in its emergency planning.
Could Iran target California with cyberattacks?
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the federal office that protects U.S. computer networks, says hackers linked to Iran’s government routinely target poorly secured U.S. systems. Its warnings cover the whole country, not California specifically.
CISA says groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a branch of the country’s armed forces, have targeted industrial control devices, the small computers that run machinery.