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San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie on Monday rejected President Donald Trump’s plan to deploy the National Guard to The City by the Bay after days of touting his administration’s public safety progress.
Trump told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo on Sunday that the National Guard is headed to San Francisco next as the Trump administration continues to crackdown on crime across the U.S., including in Chicago, Memphis and Portland.
“I am deeply grateful to the members of our military for their service to our country, but the National Guard does not have the authority to arrest drug dealers — and sending them to San Francisco will do nothing to get fentanyl off the streets or make our city safer,” Lurie said.
Lurie announced his rejection of the National Guard deployment in an Instagram Reel on Monday. He ousted a more than six-year incumbent when he was elected mayor in 2024 and has since made strategic use of social media to communicate his agenda, which has public safety at the forefront.
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“As your mayor, my top priority every single day is keeping San Francisco safe. With the support of local law enforcement, community leaders, and the appropriate federal law enforcement partners, we’re achieving that goal without compromising our values or our laws,” Lurie said, touting that violent crime is down and the “city is moving in the right direction.”
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Lurie said the city welcomes stronger coordination with government agencies to arrest drug dealers and disrupt drug markets, but since the National Guard “does not have the authority” to arrest drug dealers, he said their presence will do nothing to stop the flow of fentanyl.
In a statement shared exclusively with Fox News Digital on Monday, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said San Francisco Democrats should “welcome the President in to clean up their city.”
“America’s once great cities have descended into chaos and crime as a result of Democrat policies that put criminals first and law-abiding citizens last,” Jackson said Monday. “Making America Safe Again — especially crime-ridden cities — was a key campaign promise from the President that the American people elected him to fulfill.”
Without addressing the National Guard deployment plan directly, Lurie has been pointing to his administration’s public safety progress for the past several days.
“Since January, I have said that public safety is my number one priority,” Lurie said during a public safety briefing Friday. “Over the last nine months, we have backed that up, rebuilding the ranks of our public safety agencies, strengthening coordination across departments and strategically deploying technology. It’s working.”
But the White House urged California Democrats to recognize the progress made in Memphis, Tennessee, and in Washington, D.C., where fellow Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser has acknowledged the Trump administration’s success cleaning up the nation’s capital.
“We’re going to go to San Francisco,” Trump said on Sunday. “The difference is, I think they want us in San Francisco. San Francisco was truly one of the great cities of the world, and then 15 years ago, it went wrong. It went woke.”
Newsom was quick to fire back in a social media post Sunday, writing, “Fact check: Nobody wants you here. You will ruin one of America’s greatest cities.”
Newsom criticized Trump in August for “militarizing American cities” after the president deployed National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., to fight crime in the nation’s capital.
The California governor, a frequent Trump critic who is considered a likely 2028 presidential candidate, deployed California Highway Patrol “crime-suppression teams” across the Golden State in August to prevent crime and promote public safety.
“While the Trump administration undermines cities, California is partnering with them and delivering real results. With these new deployments, we’re doubling down on these partnerships to build on progress and keep driving crime down,” Newsom said in a statement in August, seemingly to deter another National Guard deployment to California.
Trump deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles this spring during protests rejecting deportations by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in line with another Trump mandate.
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