Trump backtracks on San Francisco troop deployment order
3 Min Read
The US president reverses plans to deploy federal troops to San Francisco after local backlash, while continuing a broader federal crackdown across major US cities.
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US President Donald Trump speaks during a roundtable on criminal cartels in the State Dining Room of the White House, Thursday, October 23, 2025, in Washington (AP)
US President Donald Trump backed down on an earlier statement of deploying federal troops to San Francisco.
"The Federal Government was preparing to 'surge' San Francisco, California, on Saturday, but friends of mine who live in the area called last night to ask me not to go forward with the surge in that the Mayor, Daniel Lurie, was making substantial progress," the US president said in a Truth Social post on Thursday.
Trump claimed that Lurie, after getting in contact with the US president the night before, asked that he be given a chance to turn the situation around.
"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 said, adding that federal troops can work faster and safer toward their intended goals.
The US president continued to say that the people of San Francisco came together to fight crime. adding that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, and others, "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!"
Federal operation meant to incite 'chaos'
Following the initial reports of the deployment on Wednesday, stating that the Trump administration dispatched 100 immigration agents to San Francisco, expected to arrive on Thursday, Lurie condemned the operation, stating the deployment was meant to incite "chaos and violence" instead of fighting crime.
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“In cities across the country, masked immigration officials are deployed to use aggressive enforcement tactics that instill fear, so people don’t feel safe going about their daily lives,” Lurie said in a nine-minute video statement.
“These tactics are designed to incite backlash, chaos, and violence, which are then used as an excuse to deploy military personnel," the mayor of San Francisco added.
Federal crackdown wave continues
Trump continues to push his intense anti-immigration policies. Earlier in October, Trump sent Texas National Guard troops to the Chicago area despite local politicians signing orders that bar the deployment of troops to their cities.
“City property and unwilling private businesses will no longer serve as staging grounds for these raids,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “The fact is, we cannot allow them to rampage throughout our city with no checks or balances. Nobody is above the law … if Congress will not check this administration, then Chicago will."
Chicago is but one case in a series of cities targeted by the Trump administration for expanded federal enforcement. Other cities that have been targets of Trump's federal intervention include Los Angeles and Washington, DC.
Read more: Millions to march in US ‘No Kings’ protests against Trump
