U.S. President Donald Trump gestures while hosting the Rose Garden Club Luncheon at the White House on October 21, 2025 in Washington, DC, USA.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
President Donald Trump said in a post Thursday that the federal government was preparing to “swoop” San Francisco and that he was upset about it. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said: sales force CEO Marc Benioff and others have decided not to introduce it.
In a post on Truth Social, President Trump said he also spoke with Democratic Mayor Daniel Lurie, who is making “significant progress” in fighting crime.
“Great people like Jensen Huang and Marc Benioff have called and said the future of San Francisco is great,” Trump wrote.
The reversal represents a major political victory for the city of San Francisco and Lurie, who is in his first term.
“The president has made it clear to me that he intends to end the planned deployment of federal troops to San Francisco,” Lurie said in a statement Thursday. “Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem reaffirmed that direction in a conversation this morning.”
Nvidia declined to comment on Trump’s disclosure of Huang’s call.
Mr. Lurie, a moderate Democrat, has taken a different approach to Mr. Trump than other California officials, including Representative Nancy Pelosi and Gov. Gavin Newsom, who have publicly pushed back against the president’s administration. Instead, Lurie has consistently avoided calling President Trump by name in public or private.
In recent speeches about the potential deployment, Lurie has touted the city’s progress on business development and crime, frequently citing data that shows San Franciscans feel the city is on the right track.
“We have a job to do, and we welcome continued collaboration with the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, ATF, and U.S. Attorneys to remove drugs and drug traffickers from our streets, but having the military and militarized immigration enforcement in our cities will hinder our recovery,” Lurie said.
The possibility of a Guard deployment became a bigger flashpoint when Benioff told the New York Times that he supports President Trump’s call for federal troops to be sent to San Francisco.
His sentiments were publicly supported by Elon Musk and David Sachs, prominent technologists with close ties to the Trump administration.
On Friday, Benioff recanted in the face of mounting criticism.
“After listening to my fellow San Franciscans and local officials, I believe we do not need the National Guard to address San Francisco’s safety after the largest and most secure Dream Force in our nation’s history,” he wrote in a post on X.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent fires non-lethal rounds at protesters who clear a path for vehicles to enter a Coast Guard island in Oakland, California, October 23, 2025. Federal agents arrive in the San Francisco Bay Area for immigration control.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images News | Getty Images
The data shows changing urban trends.
Crime rates will fall by 30% from 2024, murders will reach their lowest level in 70 years and car break-ins have not reached current levels for 22 years.
Meanwhile, event bookings and tourism are on the rise, residential real estate is in short supply, and the office market is heating up.
Business momentum in the city is largely built on the post-pandemic AI boom. Venture funding in 2025 is expected to surpass the record set in 2021, thanks to AI investments in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, according to new data from CBRE.
CNBC’s Kif Lesswing contributed to this article.
