Washington: US President Donald Trump has announced that he is halting plans to deploy federal troops to San Francisco after discussions with the city’s Mayor, Daniel Lurie, and appeals from major technology industry leaders.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said on Thursday that the federal government had been preparing to “surge” San Francisco on Saturday but reversed course after “friends” from the area asked him to reconsider.
Among them, he said, were Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff.
“The people of San Francisco have come together on fighting crime, especially since we began to take charge of that very nasty subject,” Trump wrote.
“Great people like Jensen Huang, Marc Benioff, and others have 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.”
Mayor Lurie confirmed speaking with Trump late Wednesday.
“I told him the same thing I told our residents: San Francisco is on the rise,” Lurie said in a statement.
He added that while the city welcomes continued federal cooperation with agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Drug Enforcement Administration to combat drugs, “having the military and militarised immigration enforcement in our city will hinder our recovery.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the decision shows Trump’s willingness to work “with anyone across the aisle to do the right thing and clean up America’s cities”.
The move is being closely watched in the San Francisco Bay Area, home to the second-largest Indian diaspora in the US and a major global technology hub.
Thousands of Indian-origin professionals work in Silicon Valley, including at companies like Nvidia and Salesforce, whose leaders reportedly influenced Trump’s decision to stand down the troop deployment.
Leavitt said the operation is “paused”, but that the administration will continue to “monitor San Francisco closely”.
Democratic leaders — including California Governor Gavin Newsom and Lurie — had spent weeks preparing for the possibility that Trump would send federal forces to San Francisco.
In June, the deployment of National Guard troops to Los Angeles — in response to protests sparked by immigration enforcement raids — drew strong backlash.
In August, the Trump administration deployed the National Guard to Washington, D.C. to fight crime, and threatened to send troops to more Democratic-led cities.
In late September, Trump announced he was ordering troops to Portland, calling the city “War ravaged”, but the deployment was temporarily blocked by a federal judge.
–IANS
scor/khz
