San Francisco Prepares ‘Necessary Legal Action’ if Trump Deploys National Guard

San Francisco and state officials are gearing up for a legal battle against President Donald Trump if he follows through on threats to deploy federal troops to the city.

On Tuesday, City Attorney David Chiu announced his office has joined efforts to urge the U.S. Supreme Court to block the Trump administration from deploying the National Guard in Chicago and said he’s prepared to go to court if troops arrive in San Francisco. Also on Tuesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta said they’re also prepared to “file a lawsuit immediately” should the guard show up in San Francisco.

“We don’t bow to kings, and we’re standing up to this wannabe tyrant,” Newsom said in a statement.

The move comes just days after the president said he wants to send federal law enforcement to the city next.

“Our local law enforcement have deep local experience and expertise that the military simply does not,” Chiu said in a statement. “Should President Trump make good on his ridiculous threats to send the military to San Francisco, our city is prepared, and my office is prepared to take the necessary legal action to defend San Francisco.”

Shortly after the city attorney’s announcement, Supervisor Jackie Fielder asked Mayor Daniel Lurie — who has refrained from calling out Trump directly — about how the city is preparing to respond if the administration sends troops to San Francisco.

Lurie answered the question at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, saying his office has convened a policy group representing different local law enforcement and other agencies to regularly monitor National Guard deployments in other cities, and discuss how to keep local residents safe if that extends to San Francisco. He said the group met on Tuesday, but did not go into detail about the discussion.

“It is not the role of local law enforcement to assist with military operations on our streets,” Lurie said. “I am fully committed to upholding those policies.”

When asked about the president’s decisions to deploy federal troops to other Democratic cities and threats to do so in San Francisco, Lurie has repeatedly defended the city’s local law enforcement capabilities and pointed to the city’s declining crime rates and growing police force.

State leaders have also rejected the idea that the guard is needed in San Francisco.

“Local officials do not want the National Guard in San Francisco, contrary to what President Trump actually believes,” Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office said in a statement.

Gov. Gavin Newsom and Bonta held a press conference in San Francisco on Monday, calling on the Supreme Court to halt Trump’s military deployment in Chicago. Newsom and Bonta previously sued the Trump administration over sending troops to Los Angeles in June. That litigation is ongoing.

This week, Trump recently doubled down on his comments, saying he could invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy troops in San Francisco.

“We’re going to go to San Francisco,” Trump said in an interview on Sunday on Fox News. “The difference is I think they want us in San Francisco.”

The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved Fielder’s motion on Tuesday to ask the mayor about the city’s plans for responding to federal law enforcement.

“[Trump’s] comments about our city should not be taken lightly,” Fielder said at the meeting.

Lurie’s response to the board was built on a statement he released Monday, where — in a departure from his usual strategy of avoiding the topic — the mayor said issues such as outdoor drug dealing will not improve with military personnel on the ground.

“I am deeply grateful to the members of our military for their service to our country, but the National Guard does not have the authority to arrest drug dealers — and sending them to San Francisco will do nothing to get fentanyl off the streets or make our city safer,” Lurie said Monday.

As tensions escalate, Lurie has yet to mention Trump directly. Instead, on Monday, he said he welcomed “stronger coordination” with federal law enforcement agencies like the FBI, DEA, ATF and U.S. Attorney “to execute targeted operations, arrest drug dealers, and disrupt drug markets and multinational cartels.”

That response also raised questions from Fielder. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and arrests have dramatically increased in San Francisco this year, leaving many immigrants and other residents worried about any increase in federal law enforcement that could intersect with immigration, transgender and LGBTQ issues, as well as homelessness and addiction.

“In the Mission, we have been bracing for this moment, the moment that people stop going to work, when anyone Black or Brown can’t freely walk outside without the fear of Trump’s federal agents racially profiling and arresting them, the moment when parents stop sending kids to school, become too afraid to go to the grocery store or doctor,” Fielder, who represents the area, said Tuesday. “What we have been preparing for in the Mission is essentially a shutdown the likes of which we haven’t seen since COVID.”

Meanwhile, community groups like Bay Resistance are also gearing up for the possibility of federal troops arriving in San Francisco, in the form of text alerts, pre-planned rallies on the first day of any deployment action and vigils in local neighborhoods.

The National Guard is not allowed to do the job of local law enforcement. San Francisco is also a sanctuary city, meaning local officials can not aid ICE officials, but the city also cannot interfere with ICE operations, either.

Chiu on Wednesday echoed Lurie in pointing out that San Francisco has seen “historic drops in crime.”

“Needlessly and haphazardly deploying the military to American cities makes us all less safe,” Chiu said. “These deployments inflame tensions, undermine local law enforcement and harm local economies.”

Trump’s escalation of threats to bring troops to San Francisco arrived shortly after Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff praised the president and called for the National Guard in the city.

City officials such as District Attorney Brooke Jenkins were quick to fire back at Benioff’s remarks, which he shared with the New York Times just prior to his company’s major technology conference, called Dreamforce, in downtown San Francisco last week.

Benioff later walked back and apologized for his remarks, after multiple celebrities dropped out of the conference and venture capitalist Ron Conway resigned from the Salesforce philanthropic arm. Lurie said he also spoke to Benioff days before the apology.