U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he hosts a Rose Garden Club lunch at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., October 21, 2025.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
President Donald Trump said in a post on Thursday that the federal government was preparing to “surge” San Francisco, but he was swayed by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and others to hold off on the deployment.
Trump said in a post on Truth Social that he also spoke with Democratic Mayor Daniel Lurie, who “was making substantial progress” on crime.
“Great people like Jensen Huang, Marc Benioff, and others have called saying that the future of San Francisco is great,” Trump wrote.
The reversal marks a major political win for the city of San Francisco and Lurie, who is in his first term.
“The president told me clearly that he was calling off any plans for a federal deployment in San Francisco,” Lurie said in a statement Thursday. “Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem reaffirmed that direction in our conversation this morning.”
Nvidia declined to comment on Trump’s disclosure of Huang’s phone call.
Lurie, a moderate Democrat, has taken a different approach with Trump than other California officials, like Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Governor Gavin Newsom, who publicly fire back at the president’s administration. Instead, Lurie consistently does not invoke Trump by name publicly or privately.
In recent addresses on the potential for a deployment, Lurie has touted the city’s progress on business development and crime, often citing data that shows San Franciscans feel the city is on the right track.
“We have work to do, and we would welcome continued partnerships with the FBI, DEA, ATF, and U.S. Attorney to get drugs and drug dealers off our streets, but having the military and militarized immigration enforcement in our city will hinder our recovery,” Lurie said.
The potential Guard deployment became a larger flashpoint when Benioff told the New York Times that he’d support Trump’s call for federal troops to be sent to San Francisco.
His sentiments were publicly supported by Elon Musk and David Sacks, high-profile techies with close ties to the Trump administration.
On Friday, facing mounting criticism, Benioff backtracked.
“Having listened closely to my fellow San Franciscans and our local officials, and after the largest and safest Dreamforce in our history, I do not believe the National Guard is needed to address safety in San Francisco,” he posted on X.
A U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent fires a non-lethal round at protesters as they clear a path for vehicles to enter Coast Guard Island on October 23, 2025 in Oakland, California. Federal agents have arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area for immigration operations.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images News | Getty Images
The data show a changing tide in the city.
Crime rates are down 30% from 2024, homicide levels hit their lowest levels in 70 years and car break-ins haven’t been at current levels in 22 years.
Meanwhile, event bookings and tourism are on the rise, residential real estate is becoming more scarce and the office market is heating up.
Business momentum in the city is largely built on the AI boom, post-pandemic. New CBRE data show venture funding in 2025 is expected to surpass the record reached in 2021, thanks in large part to AI investments in San Francisco and Silicon Valley.
CNBC’s Kif Leswing contributed to this story.
