Trump fears Iran could target US cities. Find out which ones benefit from additional nuclear guarantees

Driving the news: At his rally in Nebraska on Tuesday evening, Trump appeared to say that the rising costs of the war in Iran were “a small price to pay to keep the world and our country safe.”

• “It’s a small price to pay to keep the world and our country safe,” he said. “They can take a city. Let them take it, let them – let them take Los Angeles. Let them take San Diego. It’s – it’s a very small price to pay, and it will be over very soon.”
• A Trump administration account published on

The big picture: The federal government maintains contingency plans to respond to terrorist attacks and disasters nationwide.

• But the Department of Homeland Security’s Securing the Cities program goes a step further by giving certain high-risk metropolitan areas specialized capabilities to protect themselves in the event of an attack.

How the United States protects cities

How it works: The DHS STC program outlines 13 regions covering 14 high-risk urban areas that need protection from attacks.

• It is primarily intended to help state and local agencies “detect radiological and nuclear materials that could be used” in terrorist attacks, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

The program has started in 2007 as a pilot program for the New York/Jersey City/Newark area before later expanding. The DHS Office of Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction manages it and “coordinates and manages efforts to detect chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and health security threats” in specific regions, according to a DHS statement.

In figures: DHS gave $300 million to STC regions through 2023 to help them purchase radiation detectors, train officers and build systems to spot potential radioactive or nuclear materials that could be used in an attack.

Where DHS funds nuclear detection

The DHS program covers:

• New York City/Jersey City-Newark, Los Angeles/Long Beach, Washington, DC and the National Capital Region.
• Houston, Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Miami, New Orleans.
• Phoenix/Maricopa County, San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle.

Why DHS is protecting these cities

Under federal law, STC program cities must be selected from high-risk urban areas chosen by the Urban Area Safety Initiative.

• UASI assesses population size, threats, vulnerabilities and consequences of terrorism to select its locations.

Between the lines: Designating a city as high risk does not necessarily mean that DHS believes an attack there is imminent. The government is considering how vulnerable the region is and how serious an attack would be.

Flashback: A 2010 GAO report on nuclear terrorism also described cities at high or medium risk of attack.

Other Federal Threat Preparedness Programs

Zoom out: DHS and CWMD also have a biological agent preparedness program called BioWatch, which helps “at least 30 metropolitan areas prepare to respond to biological threats.”

• The program uses “a combination of detection, notification, preparation and planning” to help municipal, state, local and federal authorities prepare for an attack.
• FEMA has shared a Nuclear Detonation Response Planning Guide, which addresses responses to potential nuclear detonations.