San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie has rejected President Donald Trump’s suggestion of bringing the National Guard to the city to fight crime, amid a recovery that is driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom.
Lurie, who was elected last year in a reformist push over incumbent Mayor London Breed, attacked Trump’s idea without attacking the president by name.
In a statement, the mayor said:
Our local law enforcement already has longstanding partnerships with state and federal law enforcement to shut down open-air drug markets through our Drug Market Agency Coordination Center. To continue getting fentanyl off the street, we would welcome stronger coordination with the FBI, DEA, ATF, and U.S. Attorney to execute targeted operations, arrest drug dealers, and disrupt drug markets and multinational cartels. I trust our police officers, sheriff’s deputies, and district attorney to work together to keep our city safe—and with the right coordinated support from our state and federal partners they will have the tools to advance this critical work.
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.
The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that San Francisco has been emerging from its “doom loop” of crime and economic collapse:
Crime rates have dropped to their lowest levels in decades and continue to fall, with burglaries, a particular nuisance to homeowners and tourists, down 28% this year. The homeless tent encampments that block sidewalks and bedevil retail businesses have shrunk, while foot traffic and transit ridership have risen.
Rents overall are up 12% year over year in the city proper, with September marking the 13th month in a row of consecutive growth, according to Apartments.com. And the hotel industry is showing signs of recovery.
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The artificial-intelligence boom has prompted many firms to expand their real-estate footprints. Institutional investors have been buying up buildings at a discount, betting demand for office space will rebound. And increasingly stringent return-to-work policies have brought more foot traffic to the city’s business districts.
Lurie, an heir — like his cousin, New York congressman and impeachment counsel Dan Goldman — is an heir to the Levi-Strauss fortune. He was a philanthropist before entering politics, with little experience in public leadership.
The city’s revival may have less to do with Lurie and more to do with the AI boom, which is luring high-tech workers back to companies in the city after tens of thousands fled San Francisco during the pandemic, due to harsh coronavirus restrictions, the high cost of living, and the retreat of local policing after Black Lives Matter.
The boom actually began under Mayor Breed, who claimed in 2023 — too late to save her political career — that it would lift the city. The economic rebirth also came too late to save San Francisco’s budget from a $1 billion budget deficit.
Still, the city suffers from persistent homelessness, crime, and open-air drug abuse, so much so that Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff — a major Democratic Party donor — backed Trump’s proposal to send in the National Guard before backtracking amid a hail of criticism from his own party.
Benioff’s initial support may have created the impression inside the Trump administration that San Francisco residents may actually want the outside intervention, despite what the mayor says.
While rejecting the National Guard, San Francisco has welcomed outside intervention from the California Highway Patrol, which Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has sent to the city in recent years to assist with the rampant problem of mass looting from retail stores.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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