\n<\/p>\n
For weeks, President Donald Trump had been threatening to deploy members of the United States military to San Francisco, California.<\/p>\n
But on Thursday, Trump made a sudden about-face, announcing he would not push forward with the \u201csurge\u201d of troops to the Democratic stronghold \u2013 at least, for now.<\/p>\n
list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe Federal Government was preparing to \u2018surge\u2019 San Francisco, California, on Saturday, but friends of mine who live in the area called last night to ask me not to go forward with the surge,\u201d Trump wrote on his online platform, Truth Social.<\/p>\n The Republican leader credited Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Salesforce cofounder Marc Benioff, two titans of the tech industry, with helping to convince him to reverse course.<\/p>\n Trump added that he had also spoken with San Francisco\u2019s mayor, centrist Democrat Daniel Lurie. But in relaying their call, the president hinted that Thursday\u2019s decision may not be his final word on the matter.<\/p>\n \u201cHe asked, very nicely, that I give him a chance to see if he can turn it around,\u201d Trump said of Lurie in his post.<\/p>\n \u201cI told him I think he is making a mistake, because we can do it much faster, and remove the criminals that the Law does not permit him to remove. I told him, \u2018It\u2019s an easier process if we do it, faster, stronger, and safer but, let\u2019s see how you do?’\u201d<\/p>\n San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie discusses President Donald Trump\u2019s comments on October 23 in San Francisco [Noah Berger\/AP Photo]<\/p>\n Since taking office for a second term in January, Trump has led a campaign of mass deportation that has prompted protests and concerns about human rights violations.<\/p>\n Trump has answered those protests, in part, by sending National Guard troops to major cities with the stated aim of protecting federal immigration agents.<\/p>\n But critics, including California Governor Gavin Newsom, have repeatedly warned that the military deployments not only ratchet up tensions but run afoul of the law.<\/p>\n Lurie, one of the heirs to the Levi Strauss jeans company fortune, was among those critics.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, bracing for an impending deployment, the mayor gave a news conference surrounded by city officials, calling on the residents of San Francisco to stand united.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have already seen this federal administration deploy cruel, un-American tactics to target immigrant communities in our city. If we see these kinds of tactics used again or escalated, we will protest,\u201d Lurie said.<\/p>\n He emphasised that local law enforcement would not assist federal forces in carrying out immigration raids.<\/p>\n \u201cSan Francisco will never stand by as our neighbours are targeted, and neither will I,\u201d Lurie continued.<\/p>\n The state government of California, meanwhile, had warned earlier in the week that it was prepared to sue as soon as any federalised National Guard troops arrived in San Francisco.<\/p>\n The Posse Comitatus Act, it pointed out, expressly prohibits federal troops from acting as civilian law enforcement, unless called upon by the state.<\/p>\n In a statement, Governor Newsom, who is considered a leading Democratic contender in the next presidential race, compared Trump\u2019s actions to those of a \u201cwannabe tyrant\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe notion that the federal government can deploy troops into our cities with no justification grounded in reality, no oversight, no accountability, no respect for state sovereignty \u2013 it\u2019s a direct assault on the rule of law,\u201d Newsom said.<\/p>\n A US Border Patrol officer tries to clear protesters as a vehicle enters the US Coast Guard Base in Alameda, California, on October 23 [Noah Berger\/AP Photo]<\/p>\n But despite outcry from states like California and Illinois, Trump has pushed ahead with National Guard deployments, leading to a spate of lawsuits.<\/p>\n California continues to be embroiled in a legal fight over Trump\u2019s decision to send troops to Los Angeles in June, when the city convulsed with protests and outrage over immigration raids at workplaces, shopping centres and parks.<\/p>\n Demonstrations, the majority of them peaceful, spilled into the streets. Trump nevertheless accused protesters of being violent and sent as many as 4,000 members of the California National Guard to the city, over Newsom\u2019s opposition.<\/p>\n While Newsom has argued that the deployment was a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, the Trump administration has cited lines from the US Code as justification.<\/p>\n The US Code allows for the federalisation of state National Guard troops if there is the threat of invasion or rebellion, or if the federal government is unable to otherwise carry out its laws.<\/p>\n Though the Los Angeles protests have largely subsided, the Trump administration has proceeded to send National Guard troops to other Democrat-led jurisdictions, despite pushback from local leaders.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, for instance, Trump authorised the National Guard to go to Chicago, Illinois, prompting a lawsuit from that state.<\/p>\n And in late September, the president announced on Truth Social he would send troops to \u201cwar-ravaged\u201d Portland, Oregon, a move that was blocked by an emergency court petition.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Trump has touted the benefits of military deployments to Washington, DC, and Memphis, Tennessee, arguing that the presence of the troops lowered crime in both cities.<\/p>\n Salesforce cofounder Marc Benioff faced criticism for calling for a National Guard deployment in San Francisco [Darron Cummings\/AP Photo]<\/p>\n As a longtime left-wing bastion, San Francisco has long been a punching bag for Trump and other Republicans.<\/p>\n Even on the campaign trail, the president took shots at the city\u2019s Democratic leadership, blaming it for San Francisco\u2019s \u201cdestruction\u201d.<\/p>\n But in recent weeks, Trump closed in on the city as the subject of his next crime and immigration crackdown.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to go in San Francisco,\u201d Trump told Fox News on October 19. \u201cSan Francisco was truly one of the great cities of the world. And then, 15 years ago, it went wrong. It went woke.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s decision to reverse course on Thursday mirrored that of one of his supporters, Marc Benioff.<\/p>\n The billionaire\u2019s software company, Salesforce, is based in San Francisco, and Benioff holds a weekend-long tech conference in the city every year.<\/p>\n But on the eve of this year\u2019s event, Benioff told The New York Times that he would welcome the National Guard in San Francisco, echoing Republican calls to \u201cclean\u201d up the city.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t have enough cops, so if they can be cops, I\u2019m all for it,\u201d Benioff said.<\/p>\n Those comments drew instant backlash from city officials, and comedians slated to perform at his annual conference dropped out. Days later, Benioff took to social media to apologise for his comments.<\/p>\n \u201cI do not believe the National Guard is needed to address safety in San Francisco,\u201d Benioff wrote, citing his conversations with locals.<\/p>\n \u201cMy earlier comment came from an abundance of caution around the event, and I sincerely apologize for the concern it caused.\u201d<\/p>\n Benioff was among the advisers Trump cited as an influence in Thursday\u2019s decision to back down from his long-threatened deployment.<\/p>\n Already, protests had erupted outside the US Coast Guard facility in Alameda, part of the San Francisco Bay Area.<\/p>\n For his part, Mayor Lurie said he would welcome \u201ccontinued partnerships\u201d with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) or the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) as the city struggles to reduce accidental overdoses.<\/p>\n But, Lurie added, that invitation did not include military involvement.<\/p>\n \u201cHaving the military and militarized immigration enforcement in our city will hinder our recovery,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For weeks, President Donald Trump had been threatening to deploy members of the United States military to San Francisco, California. But on Thursday, Trump made a sudden about-face, announcing he would not push forward with the \u201csurge\u201d of troops to the Democratic stronghold \u2013 at least, for now. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[17760,964,4902,744,150,480,4901,2229,81],"class_list":{"0":"post-30176","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-backtracks","9":"tag-donald","10":"tag-francisco","11":"tag-military","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-plans","14":"tag-san","15":"tag-surge","16":"tag-trump"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u2018Cruel, un-American tactics\u2019<\/h2>\n
Series of crackdowns<\/h2>\n
San Francisco on the radar<\/h2>\n