Trump's Comments on L.A., San Diego are Not Treasonous, Professor Larson Tells HuffPost

Professor Carlton F.W. Larson spoke to HuffPost on Oct. 6 about President Donald Trump’s attention-getting suggestion that the United States would allow Iran to “take out” Los Angeles and San Diego if that would help the U.S. win the war.

Trump’s incendiary statements did not meet the definition of treason under the law, said Larson, one of the leading authorities on the topic.

Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law Carlton Larson's research interests focus on constitutional law and legal history. One of the nation’s leading authorities on the law of treason, Larson is the author of the ABA Silver Gavel Award finalist books The Trials of Allegiance: Treason, Juries, and the American Revolution (Oxford University Press, 2019) and On Treason: A Citizen’s Guide to the Law (Ecco/HarperCollins, 2020).

His latest book, One Nation Under Law, was released in June 2026.