President Donald Trump said he’s calling off the deployment of federal troops to San Francisco after speaking to billionaires Marc Benioff and Jensen Huang, as well as the city’s mayor, Daniel Lurie.
“Friends of mine who live in the area called last night to ask me not to go forward with the surge,” Trump said on social media, specifically naming Huang and Benioff. “Therefore, we will not surge San Francisco on Saturday.”
The decision marks a stark deescalation between Trump and the liberal California city. In an event last week, the president had said he would “strongly recommend” that federal authorities “start looking at San Francisco,” following similar deployments in Chicago, Portland and Los Angeles, which sparked intense backlash from local communities.
The Trump administration had begun deploying over 100 federal agents to the Bay Area. The forces, drawn from US Customs and Border Protection, were expected to begin arriving Thursday at the Coast Guard Base Alameda, just across San Francisco Bay from the city.
Trump’s plans drew rebukes from Governor Gavin Newsom and other Democratic leaders. The backlash also ensnared Benioff, the billionaire chief executive officer of Salesforce Inc.
Benioff, ahead of his massive Dreamforce conference earlier this month, told The New York Times earlier that he “fully” supported Trump and that National Guard troops should be deployed to San Francisco. The comments were broadly criticized by the city’s politicians and other tech leaders, who were shocked that Benioff, long a civic booster, would support federal forces there. Benioff later apologized for the statement and said federal forces should not be sent to San Francisco.
A representative from Salesforce didn’t immediately respond to a request for comments.
Lurie, the mayor, said in a statement he received a phone call from Trump late Wednesday night and the president “told me clearly that he was calling off any plans for a federal deployment in San Francisco.”
“I told him the same thing I told our residents: San Francisco is on the rise,” Lurie said. “We would welcome continued partnerships with the FBI, DEA, ATF, and U.S. Attorney to get drugs and drug dealers off our streets, but having the military and militarized immigration enforcement in our city will hinder our recovery.”
The tech hub became a national symbol of urban dysfunction in the aftermath of the pandemic, hurt by rising crime, empty offices and a dire homelessness crisis. But the city has revived over the past year as the center of the artificial intelligence boom, while Lurie has taken a business-friendly approach toward local leaders.
Crime rates have been falling rapidly in recent months. The city has had a substantial decline in homicides — and is on track to see its lowest rate in generations. Property crimes, like car break-ins, have also dropped dramatically.
Much of the city’s recovery has been driven by the AI boom, which has in Huang, co-founder of Nvidia, one of its biggest champions. The company is based in nearby Santa Clara and Huang owns real estate in San Francisco. Nvidia didn’t immediately respond to a request for comments.
While Newsom has taken a combative stance toward dealing with Trump, Lurie has chosen a softer approach. The Democrat first-time mayor still criticized the decision to send federal forces to the city but avoided naming Trump and emphasized his openness to cooperating with federal law enforcement on drug trafficking.
“My team will continue to monitor the situation closely, and our city remains prepared for any scenario,” Lurie said.
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