If President Donald Trump tries to send the military to San Francisco, California is ready to take quick legal action.
Gavin Newsom is now turning up the heat and attacking Trump with a scathing warning.
The Trump administration recently ordered National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon, and Chicago. This led to protests and lawsuits.
Trump told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo over the weekend that he still plans to send troops to San Francisco. He said, “The difference is I think they want us in San Francisco.” The president said the city is “a mess” and on his list of places to visit.
“San Francisco was one of the best cities in the world, but then it woke up 15 years ago,” Trump stated.
Based on the figures, it looks like San Francisco is doing better than it has in a long time. There is more and more proof that the city is coming back to life after the pandemic, and a lot of it is because of the expanding AI industry.
CNBC says that crime has declined considerably. Overall rates are down 30% from 2024, killings are at their lowest level in 70 years, and auto break-ins are at their lowest level in 22 years. The city is also seeing a rise in event bookings and tourists, making it difficult to locate homes, and the office market is getting better.
“This wannabe tyrant,” Gavin Newsom, who was San Francisco’s mayor from 2004 to 2011, has been very vociferous against any National Guard deployment, saying it is not needed.
Newsom said in a statement, “We don’t bow to kings, and we won’t bow to this wannabe tyrant.”
“The idea that the federal government can send troops into our cities without any real reason, without any oversight, without any accountability, and without any respect for state sovereignty is a direct attack on the rule of law.”
Other local authorities, like Mayor Daniel Lurie and District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, have also said no to the concept.
Lurie agreed that fentanyl is the city’s worst problem on the streets, but he said that sending in military personnel will not help.
“Let me be clear—no local or elected San Francisco leaders want the National Guard deployed to San Francisco at the direction of the Trump Administration,” Jenkins stated Monday.
Federal legislation says that personnel of the National Guard can’t function as municipal police.
City leaders said that even if troops were sent in, they couldn’t investigate or arrest, as Trump suggested.
Already going to court…
The San Francisco Chronicle said that the debate grew when Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said that the National Guard could act as police in San Francisco.
People were angry about what he said, and Benioff eventually apologized in public.
Many California authorities, like Attorney General Rob Bonta and San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu, are backing Newsom and saying they will take legal action if Trump goes ahead.
The governor is already trying to stop the federalization of California National Guard troops. This started in June because of protests against Trump’s mass deportation tactics in Los Angeles. At first, Trump made about 4,000 members of the California National Guard federal employees. The result was nearly a third of the active force.
Most have gone back to state authority, but roughly 300 are still under federal control. Some were transported to Portland, Oregon, where a judge chosen by Trump stopped them from going out on the streets, and 14 were flown to Chicago for training.
At a Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, Mayor Lurie said he has put together a group of public safety officials, city attorney reps, and other department heads to work together on how the city will respond to any possible federal action.
Lurie said, “We’ve been thinking about the National Guard being sent to San Francisco since the first day of my term.”