Trump backs off ‘surge’ threat to San Francisco

Right now, it seems as though Donald Trump is at war with blue states over his crime and immigration agenda.

California and Illinois are on the front lines of this, but Governor Gavin Newsom has really been applying the pressure to Trump, likely to position himself for a run at the White House in 2028.

It looked like we were about to have a major standoff after Trump threatened to send a “surge” to California, but he has backed off after having a conversation with the city’s mayor.

Going to San Francisco

San Francisco suddenly came into play after a major Democrat donor, Marc Benioff, the Salesforce chief executive, said he wanted to see Trump send in the National Guard. He later took those comments back, but they clearly inspired Trump.

Trump then stated, “We’re gonna go to San Francisco. The difference is I think they want us in San Francisco.”

Trump further stated that he had “unquestioned power” to do this, likely leaning into a recent appellate court ruling that said he could use the California Guard in Oregon.

As you can imagine, California got its back up and was ready for war over this.

We Will Fight You

After Trump made that announcement, Governor Newsom came out firing, stating, “We’re a nation of laws and accountability — not a nation that turns a blind eye to abuse of power. Donald Trump, himself a convicted felon who pardoned felons convicted of assaulting federal law enforcement officers, is misleading the public with his false narrative that America, and especially California, is some lawless wasteland.

“But California is proving him wrong — in the courts and on the facts. We don’t bow to kings, and we’re standing up to this wannabe tyrant. The notion that the federal government can deploy troops into our cities with no justification grounded in reality, no oversight, no accountability, no respect for state sovereignty — it’s a direct assault on the rule of law.

"We’re drawing a line: California will always defend the Constitution, our people, and our values from authoritarian overreach.”

The line in the sand was drawn, and the next move would be Trump’s.

On Second Thought…

On Friday, reports broke that Trump was backing off the “surge” of troops to San Francisco after he claimed he had a conversation with Mayor Daniel Lurie. Trump made a long post on Truth Social, saying that “friends” of his asked him to talk to the mayor and try to work something out.

Trump concluded his post, “The people of San Francisco have come together on fighting Crime, especially since we began to take charge of that very nasty subject. Great people like Jensen Huang, Marc Benioff, and others have called saying that the future of San Francisco is great. They want to give it a ‘shot.’ Therefore, we will not surge San Francisco on Saturday. Stay tuned!”

Lurie acknowledged that he did talk with Trump, in part, stating, “We have work to do, and 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. We appreciate that the president understands that we are the global hub for technology, and when San Francisco is strong, our country is strong.”

To me, this is great. Rather than going to war with cities, they are talking and figuring out ways to allow federal law enforcement to work with local authorities to find a solution to these crime issues. See how much easier it is when people talk nicely to each other rather than calling them Nazis and Fascists! This, to me, is a win for both sides, and I am perfectly fine with that.