In something of an oopsie, the Marine Corps has peppered JD Vance‘s motorcade with potentially deadly shrapnel during their 250th anniversary celebrations. The New York Times reports that a 155-millimeter shell was “prematurely detonated” during the commemoration at Camp Pendleton in San Diego, with Vance’s motorcade being hit by metal debris.
Vance’s team quickly confirmed that a “mishap” had taken place, but no officers had been hurt and sought to play down the seriousness, with one saying it sounded “like pebbles hitting his motorcycle and the area around him.”
The reality seems to have been a little more alarming, as the photos show that the metal projectiles were powerful enough to dent vehicles and thus potentially cause serious injury or death to anyone unlucky enough to be caught in the blast:
— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) October 19, 2025
Meanwhile, Gavin Newsom is rolling his eyes and pointing out that he predicted this exact thing would happen. Taking to social media, he argued that “Donald Trump and JD Vance put lives at risk to put on a show”:
Donald Trump and JD Vance put lives at risk to put on a show.
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) October 19, 2025
If you want to honor our troops, open the government and pay them. pic.twitter.com/DpBzKuxyOg
He also showed off a picture of the type of shell that detonated and bluntly said that “this could have killed someone”:
This is the type of explosive that detonated prematurely.
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) October 20, 2025
The best Fox News can come up with is “CONCERNING.”
This could have killed someone. https://t.co/TrPtL9tcYa pic.twitter.com/tfqwxCLKc5
Newsom was right!
I suspect few tears would be shed in the Newsom household if Vance himself were caught in the explosion, but the Governor can at least be smug that he’s been totally vindicated for his decision to close I-55 during this live-fire exercise.
Meanwhile, the line from the White House was that the live fire celebration presented “no threat to public safety” and that Newsom was playing politics by choosing to shut down the freeway. All of this means Newsom has been proven entirely correct – if high-speed shrapnel had rained down on a busy freeway, it’d have caused chaos.
Sure, the metal shards may not have penetrated inside passing vehicles, but we can guarantee some drivers would panic after hearing sudden explosions overhead, having their vehicles hit by metal debris, and subsequently lose control of their cars at high speed. Maybe the next time the Trump administration wants to have some fireworks, they can just get them from Walmart rather than raiding the armory…
