President Donald Trump hinted that his administration may once again send federal service members to California, this time to address the escalating problems of crime and homelessness in San Francisco.
Speaking from the White House alongside FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi, the president discussed his administration’s ongoing efforts to combat violent crime across the nation.
During the event, Trump turned his attention to California’s troubled city by the bay.
“I will be strongly recommending at the request of government officials, which is always nice, that you start looking at San Francisco,” Trump said.
🚨 BREAKING: President Trump just announced he will be SURGING federal agents into San Francisco to clean up crime
LONG overdue!
Gavin Newscum is gonna throw a FIT 🤣 pic.twitter.com/JIOi2d9irI
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) October 15, 2025
The president lamented what he described as the city’s fall from grace, recalling its past reputation as one of America’s most beautiful and prosperous cities.
“I think we can make San Francisco, one of our great cities ten years ago, 15 years ago and now it’s a mess,” he said.
“We have great support in San Francisco so I would like to recommend that for inclusion maybe in your next group.”
Trump referenced the administration’s prior use of federal troops to restore order in crime-ridden cities such as Washington, D.C., Memphis, Chicago, and Portland.
He framed these deployments as necessary steps to counter rising violence and chaos in urban areas.
“When I campaigned, I talked about crime, but I never knew that we were going to get into it like we did,” Trump said. “I used to watch these cities with the murders. I tell you what, the people in Chicago and the people in places like that, that could be fixed.”
“At some point, it gets to where you can’t fix it anymore. It’s too far gone,” he added. “We have some cities like that, but these are great cities that could be fixed.”
TRUMP: San Francisco was a great city 15 years ago.
ME: Why, thank you! pic.twitter.com/t8XUeH63cG
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) October 15, 2025
California Gov. Gavin Newsom was quick to respond. After Trump’s remarks were shared online, Newsom reposted a short clip of the president calling San Francisco one of the nation’s great city’s with no other context, which he captioned, “Thank you!”
His press team followed up with a comment saying, “We agree, and it still is,” along with a screenshot from Google showing that Newsom served as San Francisco’s mayor from 2004 to 2011.
While the exchange appeared lighthearted, Newsom’s office later issued a sharp rebuke of Trump’s proposal.
“California will resist any effort by Donald Trump to militarize another American city for his own vanity and deranged fantasies,” the spokesperson commented.
Trump today: “San Francisco was a great city 15 years ago.”
We agree, and it still is! pic.twitter.com/P2F3rwaoiF
— Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) October 15, 2025
“California doesn’t want or need the National Guard to police its streets. In this state, we take care of our own communities — unlike Trump who can’t even pay the soldiers under his command.”
Newsom’s office countered Trump’s depiction of San Francisco by citing recent improvements in public safety data.
A press release on the governor’s website claimed that overall violent crime has dropped significantly in major California cities, including San Francisco.
According to the Major Cities Chiefs Association, violent crime in California’s largest cities declined by 12.5% in 2025 compared to the previous year, with Oakland reporting a 30% drop and San Francisco seeing a 22% reduction.
“We take the safety and security of our neighborhoods extremely seriously – and our hard work is paying off,” Newsom said in a statement.
“Through meaningful and significant funding investments and partnerships with local law enforcement and community groups – our crime is down,” he continued.
“Although good enough never is, we will keep working together to help keep Californians safe.”
Still, Trump’s talk of federal intervention in San Francisco found support among some of the city’s most influential business leaders.
Billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk backed the idea, writing on X, “It’s the only solution at this point,” and referring to the downtown area as a “drug zombie apocalypse.”
It’s the only solution at this point.
Nothing else has or will work. https://t.co/4UuiYTZzjq
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 12, 2025
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, who has previously clashed with city officials over homelessness and crime, initially told the New York Times he supported the proposal.
“We don’t have enough cops, so if they (the National Guard) can be cops, I’m all for it,” he said, though he later appeared to soften his position, suggesting that safety should remain “the responsibility of our city and state leaders.”
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, and Sheriff Paul Miyamoto held a press briefing the same day to highlight what they described as progress in reversing the city’s crime trends.
Jenkins said local leaders would accept federal assistance if necessary but insisted that “local leaders have this issue under control right now.”
“Thanks to the leadership of Governor Newsom and the partnership of the California Highway Patrol, crime in our city is down nearly 30%, car break-ins are at 22-year lows, homicides are at 70-year lows, and San Franciscans are feeling positive about the direction of our city once again,” Lurie said.
“And we are going to continue working every single day to build on this progress and keep our city safe 365 days a year.”
Meanwhile, Washington, D.C.’s Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser, voiced concerns about the legality of using the National Guard in domestic law enforcement.
Speaking at the Fortune Most Powerful Women conference, Bowser said she believes the federal use of the Guard to police cities violates the law.
“I don’t think it’s legal, let me start there, for the National Guard to police Americans on American soil,” she said. Bowser explained that the D.C. National Guard reports directly to the president rather than the city’s government, making its situation unique.
“While I can request the National Guard, they are completely federally operated,” she said.
“We use the Guard to respond to emergencies. We use the Guard for large scale events. We do not use the Guard to police our local laws.”
Bowser warned that such actions could lead to greater consequences for democratic institutions.
“We should all be concerned about the military being used because it’s a slippery slope,” she said.
“You use it for crowd control one day, or presence the next day — it’s not a long jump to using it in other ways that could interfere with the very nature of American democracy.”
According to the U.S. Constitution and the powers enumeration section, whenever the constitution and laws of the country are being broken/abused the Executive Branch has the authority to step in and provide protection for the local citizenry and property. In a dozen blue cities across the U.S. riots, insurrection and anarchy are being unloaded opon the citizens due to the blatant failure of local governments. Therefore it is the presidents responsibility to take the actions necessary to remove these threats by all means necessary. That is exactly what Trump is doing; his duty as Commander-in-Chief.
Newscum U seeded this years ago OK