President Donald Trump said Thursday he was persuaded by “friends” to call off a federal troop deployment to San Francisco.
Trump said in a Truth Social post that he also spoke with Democratic San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, who told him the city was making “substantial progress” on combating crime and asked to be given “a chance” to handle the issue locally.
“I told him I think he is making a mistake, because we can do it much faster, and remove the criminals that the Law does not permit him to remove,” Trump added. “I told him, ‘It’s an easier process if we do it, faster, stronger, and safer but, let’s see how you do?’ 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 confirmed he spoke with Trump on Wednesday night and that the president said he would call off sending federal troops to the Bay Area city.
“In that conversation, the president told me clearly that he was calling off any plans for a federal deployment in San Francisco,” Lurie said. “Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem reaffirmed that direction in our conversation this morning.”
Lurie’s announcement comes less than 24 hours after reports surfaced that the White House was sending more than 100 Border Patrol officers.
Lurie, a first-term Democratic mayor, added that he told Trump, “San Francisco is on the rise. Visitors are coming back, buildings are getting leased and purchased, and workers are coming back to the office.”
He added that while he would welcome partnerships with the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and U.S. attorney “to get drugs and drug dealers off our streets,” “having the military and militarized immigration enforcement in our city will hinder our recovery.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.