San Francisco leaders push again in opposition to Trump’s Nationwide Guard risk

By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ and JANIE HAR

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — President Donald Trump retains threatening to ship Nationwide Guard troops to San Francisco subsequent, blasting the California metropolis as crime-ridden and saying its residents are clamoring for federal assist.

However native and state leaders say that couldn’t be farther from the reality, noting total crime is down and the town has began to show round its downtrodden pandemic picture. Residents and employees out downtown this week mentioned they’re puzzled and anxious by Trump’s risk.

“This can be a protected American metropolis,” Mayor Daniel Lurie informed The Related Press final week. “We obtained this in San Francisco.”

The Republican president has referenced crime as his justification for presumably sending troops to the town of roughly 830,000. He’s deployed the Guard over crime considerations to Washington, D.C., the place he has direct management of the Nationwide Guard, and Memphis, the place the Republican governor helps their presence. Los Angeles was the primary metropolis the place Trump deployed the Guard, arguing it was mandatory to guard federal buildings and brokers as protesters fought again in opposition to mass immigration arrests. He’s since mentioned they’re wanted in Chicago and Portland, Oregon, as properly.

Residents and leaders in Portland have been shocked by Trump’s consideration when he described the town as besieged by violent protests. In actuality, nightly protests have been small and restricted to the realm exterior a federal immigration constructing. Whereas there have been some arrests for violence, the demonstrations have been far much less intense than people who roiled the downtown in 2020 following the demise of George Floyd.

In San Francisco, too, Trump appears to be counting on an outdated image of a metropolis typically focused by conservatives.

“The distinction is, I believe they need us in San Francisco,” Trump mentioned Sunday on Fox Information. “San Francisco was actually one of many nice cities of the world. After which, 15 years in the past, it went incorrect. It went woke.”

His feedback angered and baffled Kate Freudenberger, who works in retail.

“You’ve been strolling across the metropolis, it’s peaceable, there isn’t any rebellion,” she mentioned Tuesday morning, including that immigration authorities haven’t been as lively in San Francisco as in different cities, “so there’s actually been nothing for us to coalesce round.”

Marc Benioff, the chief government of San Francisco-based software program big Salesforce, precipitated a stir when he informed the New York Occasions earlier this month that he’d welcome Guard troops to assist quell crime forward of his main annual enterprise convention. He has since apologized for his remarks, saying the convention was the “largest and most secure” in its historical past and the Guard just isn’t wanted.

Town emerges from struggles

San Francisco continues to be recovering from the coronavirus pandemic, which emptied its downtown and introduced renewed consideration to road homelessness and open drug dealing. However indicators point out a metropolis on the upswing. Synthetic intelligence startups are snapping up workplace house, and residential rental costs are rising. San Francisco noticed a 21% enhance from final 12 months in workplace visits, in line with location analytics platform Placer.ai, and public transit ridership is at its highest ranges because the pandemic.

The Wall Road Journal this week declared the town was rising from its “doom loop,” an article the mayor eagerly shared on social media.

Sidewalks are cleaner and tent encampments have largely disappeared from view. Within the Tenderloin, probably the most troubled neighborhoods, groups of metropolis and nonprofit employees on Monday helped college youngsters cross the road, walked round selecting up trash or recommended homeless individuals. It was a special picture than in the course of the pandemic, when a whole lot of individuals camped on sidewalks.

Nonetheless, the Tenderloin is an issue spot for public drug use and dealing, as are the Mid-Market and Mission neighborhoods. However total crime is down greater than 26% this 12 months in comparison with the identical interval final 12 months, in line with the San Francisco Police Division. Car break-ins — which have vexed vacationers and residents alike — are at a 22-year low, Lurie mentioned.

Lurie, a centrist Democrat who has tried to keep away from confrontations with Trump by ignoring most of the president’s feedback, mentioned Monday he’d welcome extra federal assist to arrest drug sellers and disrupt drug markets. However sending within the Guard wouldn’t obtain that, he mentioned.

“The Nationwide Guard doesn’t have the authority to arrest drug sellers—and sending them to San Francisco will do nothing to get fentanyl off the streets or make our metropolis safer,” Lurie mentioned in an announcement.

San Francisco voters in 2024 gave police the authority to make use of drones, surveillance cameras and different know-how to combat crime. In addition they ousted politically progressive District Legal professional Chesa Boudin in a 2022 recall election and put in Brooke Jenkins, thought-about to be a lot harder on crime than her predecessor. Lurie has pushed to rent and retain law enforcement officials, and entry-level police purposes are up 40% over final 12 months.

California leaders pledge to combat again

In the meantime, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration has mentioned it might push again forcefully on any deployment, because it did when Trump first ordered the California Nationwide Guard into Los Angeles in opposition to Newsom’s needs. California Legal professional Normal Rob Bonta vowed to “be in courtroom inside hours, if not minutes” if there’s a federal deployment.

Lawsuits by Democratic officers in Chicago and Portland have thus far blocked troops from going out on metropolis streets.

Libby Baxter, a retired nurse, mentioned Trump has despatched the Nationwide Guard to Democratic cities to create “chaos and unrest” and she or he fears the identical may occur in San Francisco.

“I imagine that that will occur if they arrive to San Francisco as a result of we’re a really tolerant neighborhood, however we don’t do properly with any individual coming in and attempting to dictate or take over sure elements of our metropolis,” she mentioned.

Initially Printed: October 21, 2025 at 4:09 PM PDT