Mayor Daniel Lurie today said that President Trump simply called him — no go-betweens or consigliere required — and told him there would no longer be a deployment of federal troops to San Francisco.
The president simply dialed the mayor up and talked at him. If they decide to make this into a “Saturday Night Live” sketch, I suggest Lurie be played by this guy.
And, just like that, a daylong crisis and flood-the-zone news cycle across the Bay Area regarding the imminent deployment of border protection agents to the region was quelled.
Or not: Oakland mayor Barbara Lee said the president didn’t call her. Lurie and other local leaders are taking the president’s words to mean that the rest of the Bay Area will be spared, but there was no overt pledge regarding that.
It’s great for the people of San Francisco that the president has capriciously decided to unsend the troops he capriciously decided to send.
But the real story here is, per the president’s summation of his discussion with Lurie on social media, that the commander-in-chief is overtly stating that he is basing a domestic military deployment upon what local “friends of mine” (billionaire CEOs Jensen Huang of Nvidia and local boy Marc Benioff of Salesforce) lobbied him to do.
Trump also noted that Lurie asked him “very nicely” not to establish a military beachhead in San Francisco.
All for the good. But what if Huang and Benioff had been in the mood for a military parade and called for sending in the troops? What if Lurie had been less polite?
If things had gone even slightly differently, it stands to reason that federal immigration agents and/or armed troops could be rolling through the city by now.
There are only so many turns of phrase you can employ: This is just a profoundly fucked-up way to lead a country. It’s like dealing with King George or a warlord out of the Dark Ages.
This city’s billionaires are very good at some things, and those things have made them a lot of money. But being good at those things doesn’t make your average billionaire an expert on military intervention, the local drug trade or, for that matter, immigration policy or crime in the city.
Speaking of capricious, Benioff was for sending in the Guard before he was against it.
It figures: Salesforce veterans tell me they expect Benioff would do great schmoozing in a one-on-one with the president because their personalities are so similar.
For a guy who drinks so much coffee, Daniel Lurie is remarkably even-keeled. When asked about his discussion with President Trump, Lurie told the press that he simply recited all of San Francisco’s heartening crime statistics over the telephone — and kept reciting them, sprinkling in a little real estate boosterism along the way.
“Everything I told you is all I said to him,” the mayor said today.
“I keep repeating, and I said to him, that we are at 70-year lows when it comes to violent crimes. Tent encampments are at record lows. I spoke about more office space being leased than vacated. For the first time, retail is back. Hotel bookings are up 50 percent. Convention bookings are also up 50 percent. This is a city on the rise. And that’s what I said to him. And that’s what I say to everybody.”
The president, Lurie said, “asked nothing of me.”
Nobody who spent summers with the mayor at Camp Mather was made to purchase Trump’s 555 California St. property at an exorbitant markup. No promises to build a Trump Tower on top of Salesforce Tower were required to call off the troops.
It remains unclear if Lurie finally referred to Trump by name when on the phone with Trump. Evidently, he wasn’t asked to.
I’d like to think the mayor really did say “retail is back!” to the man presently tearing down the White House to install a ballroom fit for people who feel Versailles is too understated. If he did, it worked.
For now: “They want to give it a ‘shot,’” Trump wrote. “Therefore, we will not surge San Francisco on Saturday.”
All of the things Lurie told the president — and “everybody” — are true. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Subjectively, you may not feel safe in San Francisco. Objectively, you’ve rarely been safer.
San Francisco’s reported crime totals are low, and that’s something you could say prior to this mayor or this president.
We are on pace for our lowest homicide total since 1954, but last year’s total was the lowest since 1961. Car break-ins, which were long part of the San Francisco Condition and gave us the municipal nickname “Bip City” are way down.
But the fact that it was true does not matter: What Huang or Benioff or other billionaire pals tell the president is what matters.
The problem, however, is that parts of San Francisco still look gnarly — gnarlier, arguably, than they did in the 1970s, when teams of serial killers roamed the streets. There are swaths of the city in which people are living in overt filth and misery and are overtly buying, selling and using drugs.
There are still homeless people, drug addicts and homeless drug addicts shambling about. They may be disinclined to give you the Zodiac Killer treatment, but their presence makes people uncomfortable.
This makes people — including terminally online tech CEOs and VCs — feel unsafe. This makes ostensibly intelligent tech barons ping the president on social media and ask him to send in the National Guard.
If Lurie did indeed stave off an intervention of armed soldiers or rampaging immigration agents by telling the truth, then more power to him. To paraphrase the Ben Franklin quote, honesty is one of the better policies.
But the “shot” Lurie has apparently been granted was to clean up a problem he has explained, quantitatively, that we don’t have. Lurie will purportedly meet with Attorney General Pam Bondi.
But it remains to be seen if any federal assistance from the FBI or DEA to combat drug-trafficking doesn’t come with serious — and capricious — strings attached. Every bargain with Trump and his gang is a Faustian bargain.
San Francisco’s crime stats have been headed the right way for a while. But our gnarliness vibes have not, and we still recalled our DA and dumped our prior mayor.
It’s not enough for Lurie to point to numbers. He has to deliver the right vibes. The kind of vibes that can appease our billionaire class and the president they call up and lobby. That’s a hard job. Get that man a cup of coffee.
Retail, they say, is back. It remains to be seen if and when federal immigration agents will be, too.
Additional reporting by Io Yeh Gilman and Xueer Lu.
Joe,
I’m an ML supporter and fan of yours. However the Dismukes bit strikes me as discordant note in an otherwise typically strong piece. This is, as you say, a profoundly fucked-up situation, and to me, too serious for a celebrity look-alike game.
IMO anyway. Godspeed.
In terms of both countenance and vocal tone, I think Mikey Day would make a better Lurie.
Sonya —
I can see it.
JE
tRump and him deploying the National Guard is just for show and pubilcity. The cities where they are deployed, they don’t go into high crime areas, where they would be out gunned by the local thugs, they usually just stand around the city center, for a good photo op.
It’s also setting the precedent for what Hegseth has already made written and leaked plans for : having Military Troops outside polling stations at the elections to “keep the peace” and whatever else he decides to brand it as.
Trump’s people say he’s got multiple plans to stay in office after 2028. Well, you have to get the pawns in place early to achieve that. It’s not just PR, there is a darker potential ahead and we will have to relearn as a country why we ever had the Posse Comitatus Act in the first place.
Mr. Mayor,
You could take the active service troops (500 of them) with the caveat that they meet the Public in their best Dress Uniforms with Sidearm presentation.
Then, assign them to City-wide Foot Patrols with starting with their manning Koban style turning points at all BART stations with one troop always in the Koban.
It’s not the idea of supplementing our Police force that I oppose.
It’s doing it outfitted like they were preparing for Attila the Hun coming over the Berkeley Hills.
These Guardsmen and Women are not career troops like Navy Seals and hold regular jobs in their communities like regular people and I’m certain that in their Parade dress and only a single sidearm like a cop, they’d be welcomed.
Hey, it gives us a 500 Foot Patrol officer immediate infusion to make up the chronic cop shortage and we get them for FREE !!
And, these guys and gals can fight hand to hand if need be and then stop to speak to a small business owner about their own small business back in Texas.
And, while you’re at it, Mr. Mayor perhaps it is time to pitch the idea of an American Indian casino in the old Armory (bigger by 4,000 sq. ft. than Harra’s in Vegas) with Trump using his own experience in the industry to start a chain of the things in the Twitter Building and the Cow Palace and on Treasure Island with a Trump Hotel ?
Couldn’t hurt and you’re on a role.
go Niners !!
h.
“Hey, it gives us a 500 Foot Patrol officer immediate infusion to make up the chronic cop shortage and we get them for FREE !!”
A: Not cops.
B: Not patrolling.
C: NOT FREE.
D: NOT LEGAL.
Other than the basics you’re spot on.
Instead of standing in solidarity with those communities that have been and will be brutalized by Trump, he goes crawling to his Fuhrer and begs for a stay of execution. ”Oh Daddy, we promise to be good and obedient and always ask politely.” Craven, obsequious, and disgusting.
Glad to see they are not coming.
But if the Mayor and the city do not get control of the drug scene now then he should call for help.
If he doesnt , many of us will be .
Where we live the drug scene remains out of control.
Promises made by Lurie have not happened .
Our block and neighborhood are one big drug party 24/7.
This is concerning and not fair .
We are tired of the lack or respect by the city to not help our neighborhood .
I dont seen even one “concerned “
SF citizen , or a nonprofit paid for with taxpayer monies , ever here to help.
The death camps and alleys on Lower Polk and in Tenderloin have been neglected for too long .
Who cares, how Lurie got tRUMP to back off, but he got her done. The national guard is just a publicity stunt for tRUMP, they do not go into crime ridden areas, they just stand around for a photo op.to added to the president’s portfolio. I’d hate to be major, of this city.
I’m ready to hear the apology of all the progressives attacking Mayor Lurie for not antagonizing Trump over the past few months.
We have lost the presidential election which means Republicans get to govern according to their priorities on federal matters including immigration.
But we can negotiate with them for a better outcome. We can cooperate with DEA and FBI so they can arrest drug dealers instead of our local police. In exchange, the feds have to stop harassing other otherwise law abiding immigrants.
“Negotiate with the lawless king,” says the fool. Apology, lol.
In what world do you live?
They’re not happy because they were itching for a street battle.
Speak for yourself or not at all.